Greeting readers of Fanfiction. I am a humble review farmer, farming my reviews...but it seems I haven't had a good harvest yet. Without reviews to tend to, I feel as though my time as a farmer will become meaningless. Please send thy aid.
Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership Tokyo ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul:re or any related media, all these properties belong to Sui Ishida and Shueisha.
Dialogue format:
'thoughts'
"talking"
Shibuya Ward, Tokyo
Inui Fuka walked through the back alley quietly, a cheerful smile adorning her face. It had been only a day and a half after the incident with the ghoul hunters, when her "girlfriend" had told her to come to this specific location for their meeting, she set out immediately. Now, as she walked down through the back ends of the ward, she could feel another unknown individual following her. And she smiled, listening to them bumble here and there as they failed to outdo even her meager human senses.
When she reached the meeting point, she sensed they were much closer now. The clicking of a gun sounded out from behind her, and she froze with an even wider smile than before.
"Turn around, slowly…" the person behind her growled in a low tone.
Fuka took a deep breath, put on a fake mask of meekness and terror, and turned to face her attacker. The man wore a hood and ski mask to hide his face, his eyes trailing over her.
"P-please don't hurt me" she squeaked out, adding in a stutter for good effect. The look in the man's eyes told her he was buying it, hook line and sinker.
"Relax girlie...I ain't gonna hurt ya, just empty your bag there" he drawled out, motioning to the girl's purse. Fuka pulled it up and began pulling things out, pretending to cringe as the man's expression darkened at her slow pace.
"Ummm...before I give you my wallet and stuff...could you just give me your opinion on something?"
"Hmph...what is it?"
"Just this!" she said, pulling a straight dagger from her pack and presenting it to the man. The mugger looked at the blade in awe.
"Well, what do ya think?" she asked, tilting her head and flashing him a cheerful smile.
"It...it looks pretty sharp" he said confusedly.
"Sure is!~" she singsonged, smiling sadistically as she grabbed his head and slammed it downward. Her knife pierced through his eye, and stabbed deeply through his grey matter, killing him instantly. Fuka pulled her blade from him, letting the body drop to the ground, and kicked at it for a bit. She looked over to his hand, kneeling down and pulling the weapon from his now lifeless grasp.
"I'm not too big of a fan of guns, y'know…" she drawled out lazily, twirling the firearm around after putting on the safety. "Sure, the look on people's faces when you pull one on them is Hi-lar-ious...but blades and stuff make you get close, makes it so much more personal."
Fuka looked back as another person jumped from a nearby roof, lightly impacting on the alley ground as they landed on their feet. Eight long tendrils snaked their way around the alley, cutting off the human girl's escape, and poising themselves just inches away from her body for the kill. The ghoul lifted themselves to look at her, their blood red eyes staring at the human from the darkness. Despite the terrifying monster staring her down and threatening her, Fuka smiled brightly with an ecstatic expression on her face.
"Joō-sama!" she cried, running over to the creature and wrapping it into a tight embrace. She looked up to see the ghoul's womanly face, the upper half hidden by a clown mask shaped like a cartoonish rodent with a star around one eye and a bulbous clown nose.
"Hah! Pet-chan it's so good to see you...I see you brought me a present" the ghoul woman chimed in a singsong voice, motioning to the mugger's corpse. "Pets are always so cute, when they bring their owners a gift. You're just so precious…"
The clown woman held the human girl close, rubbing her face into her insubstantial chest. Fuka blushed as her mistress caressed her, moaning at the ghoul's sensual touch to her skin. The human girl looked up from the clown woman's bosom with an expression of euphoria.
"Mmmm...Joō-sama, I'm looking forward to being in your care tonight but...you did want to ask me about something, right?"
The clown woman smiled at her pet, trailing her lips down the girl's face and neck, nibbling at her skin. The ghoul giggled as the human moaned rapturously, and began moving her hand down the younger brunette's side.
"Yes Pet-chan...I heard about your little adventure with those teenage ghoul hunters from the other day" the clown woman squeezed hard on the human's backside, smirking when the girl gave a frenzied squeal. "While the reports from the doves themselves are being kept under wraps, I've heard some rumors already worming their way through the grapevine...about some big, tough gecko man supposedly surviving against a one-eyed ghoul. You know anything about that, pet-chan?"
"Haah~...yes Joō-sama, I saw a one-eye...I think it was the one you were looking for, he had a single blue eye and he was really tall, but his kagune looked a bit different from what you said-EEP!"
The clown woman chuckled lustily as she lifted her pet off the ground, holding the girl's face with a single hand as she snaked her kagune towards the girl's body.
"Oh yes! Pet-chan, you've given me such great news...my sweet darling was in the 13th, oh this is wonderful" the ghoul pressed the human girl close to her chest, grinding on her fervently. "My dear Riley-kun, the object of my every desire...oh Pet-chan I know you get so jealous when I mention him but if you knew what I knew, you'd understand why I'm so adamant about making him mine...I promise, you can even have a piece my dear, after all in a few years he'll certainly end up becoming manly enough to satisfy both of us, if you understand what I mean…"
"Hmmm...yes Joō-sama, I'll try to contain my feelings on the matter but *aaah* right now…"
"Ohoho, say no more Pet-chan...just let me handle your present first" the clown said, wrapping her spare tentacles around the corpse nearby. The clown looked down at the girl with a lusty gaze, licking her lips as the human looked up at her needily.
"Now then, let's get you back home, and I'll help you change into something more...comfortable…"
"24th" Ward, Tokyo
"Bout fucking time we left this shithole...how long have we been here?"
"If we count the time spent looking for the exit...about five days Keita" Saitou drawled out, looking forward to the leader of the operation. "Kaiko, are you sure we're on the right path? I'm not too keen on getting lost again."
"Yes, I'm sure we're on track...this is the trail to one of the entrances to the 13th ward, we should be coming up to it soon...Eric?" the white eyed man turned back to his young partner. The giant had stopped behind the rest of the group and seemed to be lingering.
"Eric, is everything alright?"
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm good, just…" the hybrid trailed off, tilting his head to the side. "It's nothing, just thought I'd heard something…"
"Well stop loitering, we need to get going."
"Yeah, yeah I gotcha Kaiko-sama…" the teen said, trudging forward along with the rest of the group.
Had they stayed for a few more minutes, Eric would have found his big break. Walking down the adjacent tunnel was a group of five ghouls who had left the 13th ward nearly an hour beforehand. The tallest of the group trailed slightly behind the rest, heaving a couple of bags and a suitcase in his large arms as he walked.
Moriomi blushed as he looked down to the girl clinging to his arm. For the dark haired teen, it was surreal. He had originally expected to have to drag an irate and permanently miserable girl into their underground town, and taking the blame for any grief his childhood friend may cause. Now, she was clinging to him for dear life and nuzzling herself into the crook of his neck lovingly. Moriomi grimaced when he realized he had yet to take his girlfriend on a proper date.
"Hmmm...hey, Riley, you sure you're okay with hauling that?" she asked, raising her head from her lover's neck.
"I'm fine Minami...if anything it's a good way to exercise my strength."
"But you don't have to-"
"Uruka-chan, give it a rest" the dark haired teen said. "He's been doing heavy lifting for a couple of months since his strength improved, you have nothing to worry about."
"Ohoho, so it's "Uruka-chan" now, huh?" Tetsuomi called from the side, smirking. "You two are giving me way too much ammo now, when is the wedding anyway?"
A soft jab to the redhead's side, courtesy of Kentetsu, shut him up quickly. While the redhead grumbled mutely at the quiet boy, the new couple blushed at the insinuation.
"Ah...I don't think we're quite there yet…" the girl trailed off, looking at her man nervously.
"Give it a few years Tetsuo, I'm not gonna rush you into not being the best man" Moriomi snarked at his friend.
"Hurtful…" the redhead deadpanned, grunting when the two giggled at his expense.
"So, the green zone…" Minami looked back and forth between the redhead and her boyfriend. "You guys said it was basically an underground forest, right?"
"Yup, literally a forest underground. There's trees, vines, all sorts of plants...even giant mushrooms of all things. Don't even get us started on the animals" Tetsuomi paused his explanation on it, turning his eyes back to the half-ghoul behind them. "Riley, you always end up dealing with the animals, why don't you enlighten her?"
"I only fight bears, they're the ones that would be dangerous…" the tall boy trailed off nervously when the girl looked up anxiously at the mention of bears. "Other than that, a wild boar might show up...but it's mostly deer, raccoons, badgers, tanuki, foxes and martens. And really we don't have much to worry about from bears anyway…"
"And how do you deal with the animals?" she asked, looking at the boy skeptically.
"Riley always ends up playing with the badgers and tanukis…" Moriomi chortled out, smirking when he caught the young hybrid shrink back timidly. "Some of those animals can be agreeable, but they're not all tame. Also, the kid is usually the one called in to deal with angry bears due to his size."
"I see...so how long will it take to get there?"
"It shouldn't take more than a few hours" the teen reassured his girlfriend. "You'll know when we've entered it, I promise."
After almost two hours of walking through winding tunnels (and being assured that they were on the right path), Minami noticed the air seemed to shift, and the appearance of the tunnels around them changed. As they walked, the walls seemed to be covered ever so gradually in tangled vines, fungai, and plant life of all sorts. Despite it being the middle of fall, the air was growing hot, to the same level as it would during the peak of springtime.
The girl looked around in awe at the changing scenery before her. Insects buzzed by and small animals scampered past her feet. Minami looked around nervously, still daunted by the underground landscape around her. She was just lucky that her boyfriend was keeping her on a straight path, otherwise she would have slammed face first into the trees that had begun to appear as they moved through. Finally, they arrived at a large chamber that the boys seemed to be familiar with. The area was worn and less lush than what she had seen earlier, indicating that it was frequently used as a meeting place or for training purposes.
"Huh...somebody is usually here" Tetsuomi said frankly, looking around in confusion. "Hey, you don't think that..."
"If they are, then there are only two places they could be" Moriomi told him with a grave expression, eliciting a look of confusion from the girl next to himself. "Which place should we check fir-"
"Onee-chan, we check on her first" Riley said, an intense look on his face that caused concern from the others.
"...Yeah, checking on boss lady first would probably make sense, but" the redhead gave the hybrid a sideways look. "She's probably fine, if anything everybody is just taking a breather."
Minami looked over to her boyfriend confusedly as the other three begane walking down another tunnel. The dark haired boy gave her a reassuring look as he took her by the hand again, pulling her along with him. It was only another several minutes of walking that they heard pained screams and groans.
"Nyaaaaaaa~!"
"Agh, derr'mo...Neko hold still…"
"Well…" Tetsuomi looked over to the white haired boy. "Looks like everybody is at your place bud."
Moriomi didn't pay his friend mind as he walked over to his leader's door. When he saw it was slightly ajar, he made a few short raps on the steel, hearing a Meiko call out for him to come in. When he pushed the door open, he shook his head in shock at the scene that greeted him.
Neneko and Kosshi lay on the floor, now adorned with visible slash and burn wounds wrapped in bandages, while being attended to by Kinuyo. The blonde's male twin sat at the table nearby, blood staining his clothes. It took Moriomi a few seconds to realize that Kinunao was missing his legs, the limbs having been cut off at the knees, though they were visibly healing. Off to the side, Meiko prepared meat for the three wounded ghouls.
"Good to see you back in one piece" she said, turning her head in his direction slightly. A smirk spread across her face when she caught sight of the girl standing a couple of feet behind him.
"You must be Uruka, right?"
"Y-yes, it's nice to meet you…" the doe-eyed girl bowed to the plum haired girl before her. "I'll be in your care, Meiko-sama"
"No, no, none of that "sama" crap" Meiko said, waving a hand in the air. "I'm not like, a queen or anything, I'm just the person holding everything here together. I don't rule over anybody down here, especially not you and your boyfriend."
"...H-how did you know?!"
"You just told me" the plum haired girl told her with a playful grin.
"Jesus christ, what the fuck happened to you guys?!" the three looked over to the door, finding Tetsuomi staring in bewilderment at the scene before him with the two preteens trailing behind him. Moriomi grimaced, looking back to his leader questioningly.
"Yeah, I was gonna ask you too...what did happen?" he looked to each of the injured ghouls, cringing as they gave him deadpan stares. "Did you guys find King Crab?"
"We found some traces of him the first couple of days, but we didn't see him at all" the plum haired girl said, cringing as she looked to her damaged friends.
"Ok, so...wait, was it Noroi and/or Eto?"
"Hahahahaha! Yeah, no…" Kosshi growled out from her spot of the floor, giving the dark haired teen a sardonic look. "If it was either of them, I'd either be hurt worse than normal, or walking on sunshine for having taken that puny little…"
Moriomi sweatdropped at the tall brunette's grumbling over her apparent nemesis. He looked over to Kinunao, giving the footless boy a questioning look. The blonde looked up at him numbly, then winced when his blue eyes caught sight of something behind the dark haired teen. Moriomi followed the blonde's gaze, turning to see Riley looking at all of them with a concerned gaze.
"...what happened Kinunao?" the hybrid asked him, apprehension evident in his voice. The injured ghouls, along with Meiko and Kinuyo, looked over to the half-ghoul nervously.
"We...we met your brother" the legless teen said, looking away from the tall boy anxiously.
Riley did not show too much of an outward reaction, for the most part. His expression became a blank mask, and his body stiffened to the point he would seem like a statue if it weren't for the rising and falling of his chest that his now steadied breathing caused. It was the look in his eyes that caused concern for everyone, the once gentle sky blue orbs now emotionless, looking cold enough to turn anything he looked at to ice.
"You have a brother?" Minami asked, looking up at the boy uneasily.
"...who do you think tortured me?" he said flatly, causing the doe-eyed girl to gasp in shock.
"Jesus...I know you gave us all the whole gist of being a mad science experiment and stuff but…" Kinunao grimaced at the hybrid's refusal to meet any of their gazes. Moriomi looked over at his leader questioningly.
"So, what was the bastard like?"
"Well, thing is" Meiko looked over to her surrogate brother with a caustic expression. "You were actually underexaggerating about him…he was way worse than you said."
"Is that so?" the tall boy drawled out, trailing off nervously. He discreetly swallowed the lump that had been forming in his throat, shrinking back at the concerned gazes from the other ghouls around him. He winced internally at the sight of the phantom dancing around the corner of his vision, clenching his fists at their smiling face.
'I thought I was supposed to be safe here...what now?'
"Hey, it's alright" his surrogate sister called up to him, clasping his shoulder. "We don't have to talk about it now...I wish you would have warned me about the whole lightning bolt thing."
"Oh...guess I forgot…"
"Lightning bolt?!" Tetsuomi called out, looking at the plum haired girl owlishly.
"Yeah, that's where all these burns came from" Kosshi called from her spot on the floor, grunting as she showed the redhead a nasty burn on her arm. "He could use his kagune to generate electricity, and use it as a weapon. Y'know, he'd wrap his tail around one of us and light them up like a christmas tree, or make a bolt of lightning and fire it at us."
"I thought that was something only ukaku should be able to do…" the redhead muttered, looking back over to the legless blonde. "If what I heard about the guy is true, how did you all get away?"
Kinunao chew the inside of his cheek nervously at the redhead's question. When he looked to his leader and saw her nod, he looked at his friend with a sigh.
"I brought out my kakuja, guy wasn't equipped to deal with those" he drawled out, noting the doe-eyed girls look of shock nearby.
"You have a kakuja?!"
"Minami, we all have kakujas" the redhead nonchalantly, barely giving her a sideways glance. "The twins have them, Kosshi has one, Neko, Boss lady, Even Kenta has a kakuja. And your boyfriend is no exception."
Minami looked over to her boyfriend with an unsettled expression, causing the teen to wince. Moriomi sighed nervously, nodding to her to confirm her unspoken question.
"I don't know why everybody gets all antsy about the mention of those things" Riley piped up, running a hand through his hair in thought. "I mean, nobody has even told me what a kakuja is…"
Meiko stared mutely at him for a good minute, before her face an embarrassed look.
"We...we haven't told you?" she asked him, cringing when the tall preteen shook his head dumbly. The plum haired girl shrunk at this, looking up at the boy apologetically. The other ghouls had similar looks of unease towards the boy, Tetsuomi and Moriomi in particular looking at him anxiously.
"How long did we forget about this?" Kinuyo called out, looking over to her bespectacled friend as she tended to Neneko.
"I think we've put it off for...maybe two months?"
"Well get to telling him, he could already have one without knowing it" the blonde girl looked back to Meiko, giving her a stern look. "It's not something we can exactly prepare for, but you need to at least give him an idea on what to expect."
Meiko sighed, looking between her surrogate sibling and her good friend.
"Yeah I gotcha...c'mon kiddo, I gotta tell you this. And you" she turned to her two direct underlings. "You're helping me explain it to him, no lip about it ok?"
Before Moriomi or Tetsuomi could protest, the plum haired girl grabbed them by the shoulders. She motioned for Riley to follow her out as she pulled the two boys along. Minami looked on as her boyfriend was pulled from the room and, worried about the possibility of gaining her own kakuja, wondered if she should follow them for her own benefit. She stopped herself when she saw Kinuyo, noticing something that she hadn't picked up on immediately.
The blonde girl's kagune was out, and she was visibly detaching pieces of it. The detached RC cells were actually closing up major wounds on the short brunette girl's body, and not too far away more detached pieces of kagune healed the taller brunette. Minami watched this with awe, slowly approaching the blonde girl in curiosity.
"Ummm...what are you doing?" she asked, flinching back when the blonde sharply snapped her blue eyes to her. "I didn't mean to distract you, it's just…"
"No, it's fine...this is a unique skill Meiko and I know. It takes a lot of concentration though" she told the doe-eyed girl, turning back to the two injured ghouls. "It's not genetic though, so if you were ever interested in learning how to do it...well, to be honest our part of the tunnels could always use more healers."
"Y-yeah, I guess I could try and pick it up…" Minami trailed off, giving the other girl a sheepish look. "I actually wanted to be a ghoul doctor, so that sort of skill would be pretty helpful."
Kinuyo sent a warm smile to the girl.
"Well, I'd be happy to start teaching you later…"
Shibuya Ward, Tokyo
CCG 13th Ward's Branch Office
Fura sat next to Arima in what the bespectacled teen had told him was a debriefing room in the CCG's 13th ward office. The apricot haired boy shrunk when the bluenette's superior, Marude Itsuki, walked through the door with an everlasting scowl seemingly permeating his face, holding a manilla folder packed with a few files along with himself. He looked through the folder as he sat in front of the two teens, reading through the files and occasionally looking up at the two teens with a deepening look of disdain.
Finally, the dark haired man deigned to look up at the two teens and meet them eye to eye. Fura clenched his teeth, barely able to force himself to look at the asshole in front of him. Marude, for the most part, seemed to barely pay the orange haired boy any mind, only briefly giving him what seemed like an incredulous glance.
"So...Arima says that you were actually responsible for quite a few of the confirmed kills he called in" the Senior Investigator leaned forward, catching the boy in a deadpan look. "Is that true pal?"
"Uh, well...I, uh" Fura gulped audibly, looking over at the man as he tried to compose himself. "Well, I wouldn't say I killed so many ghouls as to be somebody of note...just that I killed a bunch, and at least one time I had done so by myself."
"That so? Hmmmm...well, I'll tell you this kid" the man wagged a finger at the boy, giving him a sardonic smile. "I'm surprised a member of the Washuu clan hasn't come in and personally admitted you into the CCG."
Fura let out an unsteady laugh, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"I don't think I'm quite interested in just getting the job sir...I figure I'd go through the academy first after I graduated high school, y'know, so I could actually work towards a high rank."
"Hmph, you have an interesting work ethic...now, what I'm really here for isn't your future with the organization" Marude gave both of the teens a serious look. "Arima already gave me the report of the incident that happened over a day ago, and I got everything I would need from that girl you two made your accomplice, but I want to hear your side of the events Fura-san."
The orange haired teen grimaced, looking over to his partner in crime nervously. Arima motioned for him to go ahead, and Fura turned back to Marude, mentally organizing the cover story Arima and Fuka had helped him compile for themselves.
"Well, our friend...she's apart of the newspaper club at school, so she can dig up information when she needs to. She heard about how a ghoul had been sighted near this abandoned school, and that we should go check it out. When we got there...we…" the orange haired teen swallowed hard, clenching his fists at the memory of that ghoul. "When we got there, there were these three ghouls fighting, one of them I recognized as Lantern, the ghoul that killed a friend of mine."
Marude nodded grimly, giving the boy a sympathetic look. He motioned for the boy to continue, and Fura obliged.
"Well, we sort of charge in, attacking all three of them. The other two, they jumped up onto the next floor and just kept watching. I think they said something about picking off whoever won, because they'd be weaker" Fura scratched his chin, trying to figure out how to properly spin the events. "When we had Lantern on the ground, beaten, just as I was about to take him out another ghoul flew in and carried him off. The new ghoul, it was a kid I think, and it had wings like a hummingbird. After that, we found the two ghouls from earlier cornering them at a piece of rubble or something, ready to kill the ghoul kid and Lantern...and...well…"
"What happened after that Fura?" the man asked, having hung at his every word and leaning forward fully attentive.
"I'm getting to that...apparently the ghoul kid was just one of Lantern's accomplices and the other one, the big one, threw the boulder out the window and crushed the one ghoul's head. Then the thing ripped the one's ribs out of him. I think that was the gecko guy, he got away…" Fura shook his head, looking back to Marude intently. "After that, we fought the really big ghoul, and he mopped the floor with us. He wasn't too fast unless he needed to be, so he was making slow charges at us. He slammed me into the ground, threw Arima into the wall, used his freaky tail to eat my bat, and threw big rocks at us. After we got away, we met Fuka in the lobby, then you showed up, and well...you were there after all."
Marude made an "mhmm" and looked back at his files, looking through a few more papers for just a couple of seconds. He look back to the boy, a questioning look on his face.
"And you can corroborate the large ghoul's...unique feature?"
"Huh? Oh, you mean how it only had one of those eyes" Fura pointed to his own right eye to demonstrate. "Yeah, I saw that, don't have any idea why it's so important though…"
The dark haired man simply nodded, pulling a notepad out and scribbling something down.
"I think that's all I really needed...thank you for your time Fura-san."
"Hey, wait! That ghoul, with the one eye…" the teen trailed off, shrinking back at Marude's annoyed look. "It's just...what is that anyway? Is it a mutation or something?"
Marude cringed at the boy's question, looking away from the teens nervously.
"Well, you see...there are multiple theories about how one-eyed ghouls come about but-"
"Marude, save it" Arima cut in, looking back to his partner. "Articles 119 and 88 of the Ghoul Countermeasures Act covers human involvement in the harboring or prevention of arrest of a ghoul. One-eyed ghouls are a direct violation of these articles, and act itself."
Fura simply stared at the bluenette dumbly, causing Marude to facepalm and Arima to sweatdrop just a bit.
"Ok Fura, you see...when a ghoul and a human love eachother very much…" Arima trailed off, hoping the apricot haired boy got the message. Fortunately, Fura wasn't as dense as the bluenette originally thought, as his face quickly morphed into a mask of shock.
"You mean...that huge thing we fought was…"
"A hybrid, yes. Their existence has been...confirmed, at least overseas, and those individuals were found dead, so we're not even sure how they come about" Arima ran a hand through his hair. "The information we do have on them is kept extremely classified, and I really could get in hot water just for telling you all this but...I figured you really should know."
Fura's mind suddenly became a whirl of emotions. The creature he had been slammed into the ground by, it had been part human. Ghouls and humans, they were natural enemies, but he had been in the presence of living proof that they could coexist.
'I don't think...I could possibly understand what it's like to live as a ghoul' he thought, looking down unsurely.
"Well Fura-san...I ain't gonna keep ya" Marude called out as he went to leave. "I do hope to see you as one of the academy graduates within the next few years kid."
The orange haired boy gave the man an offhanded "ok", still caught in his thoughts. He looked over to his partner, the bluenette still running a hand through his hair nervously. Fura shook his head clear and approached his friend.
"Hey Arima, you ok?"
"...Oh, I'm fine Fura."
"Cool...I'm gonna take off, I'll talk to you later man" the teen called out to the other as he left. When Arima was sure Fura had well and truly left, he anxiously pulled his hand away from his blue locks, making a strangled noise of shock at what he truly thought had been an illusion from earlier.
The strand of hair he held in between his fingers was bluish grey.
Omake
Ōta ward, Tokyo
6½ years before the escape
"Ok you two, you understand the situation?"
A newly five year old Riley Jameson stared up warmly at the woman before him. Next to him, his seven year old sister stood with her arms crossed, smiling at their mother. The woman in front of them was slightly shorter than most women in japan, and she dressed in a waitress's uniform that did little to hide her very generous figure. Long dark hair cascaded around her shoulders and bright emerald eyes looked down at her youngest children sweetly.
"Yeah mom we got it" the young girl drawled out to her mom, waving a hand in the air offhandedly. "Don't let anybody into the house, if anybody calls tell them you're not home, don't draw attention to ourselves, and watch baby brother until big brother comes home...what is Lucy doing anyway?"
"Sweety, you know your big brother doesn't like being called by that nickname, so please try not to tease him too much" the woman knelt down, patting her daughter on the head. "Your brother is doing odd jobs for a bunch of the neighbors to bring in money, raking leaves and cleaning gutters, stuff like that. He'll be home in a few hours, so once he gets back just let him rest, ok? And don't forget, if he acts stupid, you act stupid right back."
"Ok mama!" the girl said cheerfully. Her mother gave her a peck on the forehead, before turning to her youngest.
"And you, little man" the woman scooped Riley up, assaulting him with tickle monster fingers, laughing as the boy did. "You remember to behave, ok Riley?"
"Ok mama" the boy said, getting the last of his giggles out as his mother put him down.
"Alright, I'll be back by the end of the day...I promise" the woman gave them a strained smile, confusing the two, before walking out the door.
After their mother left, Riley felt himself being lifted into the air by his older sister. The girl draped the boy over her back, smiling as the younger half-ghoul gave a short laugh at being pulled into a piggy-back ride.
"Are ya gonna read to me sis?"
"No baby brother, mom wants us to work on our japanese today…" the girl chortled when her younger sibling gave a loud groan at this.
"Hnnnnggg...can we read later, pwease?"
The seven year old shrunk a bit at her brother's voice. She had trouble resisting his baby voice, and she knew that if she looked behind herself he'd be giving her puppy-dog eyes.
"Fine, later...but we do need to work on it, understand?"
"Ok sis, I gotcha."
A few hours later
Riley and his sister sat around their coffee table studying japanese to the best of their abilities when the front door was flung open. The youngest half-ghoul turned to see their older brother shamble into their house, clearly drained. The tall preteen moved forward, dropping himself tiredly onto the couch near the two children. Both of them looked over to their older brother for a few seconds, wondering whether they wanted to ask him about his day or not, before going back to studying. It was only after almost half an hour that the tall boy spoke up.
"...Grilled...cheese…"
"...eh, what was that?" the girl asked, turning to her tired older brother.
"Grill...me...a...cheese…" Eric croaked out annoyedly.
The two children looked to him in confusion, then back to each other. Riley shrugged, then lifted himself off the ground, starting towards their kitchen. The girl blinked at her younger brother in confusion as he walked off, blanching when she heard small noises from the kitchen. A few minutes later, the younger hybrid returned with a plate. The five year old let the plate down on the table, right in front of his older brother. The preteen sat up slowly, looking down at the plate before him.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's a grilled cheese, just like you asked" the young boy said dumbly, tilting his head at the older boy.
"This is a piece of melted cheese on a plate, I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich dummy…"
"...Oh, ok" Riley quickly took the plate back, returning to the kitchen for a little over a minute, before coming back and proudly presenting the boy with the plate. "Fixed it for you big brother!"
"...no you didn't!" Eric growled, looking down at the food angrily. "You just took the melted cheese from before and put it in between two pieces of not melted cheese."
"Well what do you want?"
"A grilled cheese sandwich, with bread" the preteen hissed out. Riley gave his brother a dumb look, before smiling as though a lightbulb had went off in his head.
"Oh, ok I get it!" the young boy once again left the kitchen, not coming back for several minutes. When he returned, he once again placed the plate of food in front of his brother with a triumphant look on his face.
"...Riley, what is that?"
"You said a grilled cheese sandwich with bread."
"You just made two of your dumbass melted cheese sandwiches and put bread in between them!" Eric barked to the small boy.
"I don't know what you're complaining about...why can't you just make your own food?"
The tall preteen stopped at this, his shoulders slinking down and his face now hidden by shadow. The tall boy grabbed the plate of food and hauled it with him to the kitchen, grumbling the entire way. Both children followed him with their eyes as he left the room, then looked back to each other with profuse giggles.
The omake was a last minute idea I had. I might do more if I feel like it or get positive feedback on it.
Please leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your reviews.