Miyu and Kuki sat at the small kitchen table in her apartment eating breakfast. Well, they were supposed to be eating the simple meal of rolled omelet and salad she had prepared. Instead they both poked at the food without taking a bite, neither having an appetite. Between the both of them, they had finished off a pot of coffee.

Taking comfort in the tranquil quiet and each other's presence, no words passed between them. At the moment, there was nothing to say.

Both of them had received a text message from Arima informing them there would be a small, very personal ceremony for Ginshi Shirazu at the cemetery. The body had already been cremated and buried without any formalities such as a wake.

Unfortunately, Ginshi had no family except for a sister lying bed ridden at the infirmary at CCG headquarters. He did, however, have a family comprised of his fellow squad members. Miyu could be called a family friend, having ties to most of the squad including Ginshi so she had been invited as well.

"We should get dressed. We are expected to be there soon," Kuki announced, his voice muted and devoid of emotion.

But he felt everything instead of nothing. Miyu could feel the powerful emotions roiling inside of him, churning like a storm. Rage, sorrow, hate, love, despair, hope...the plethora of feelings left her tired and anxious because she experienced them with him.

Inadvertently, her soul had become enmeshed with his. More than their bodies had joined. She had become hopelessly entangled with him on every level. She did not know how it happened so easily, but he had become part of her. She should have known this was coming. Since the beginning, she had felt an inexplicable connection to him.

When you find the one, you'll know, her father's childish romantic sentiment echoed in her head.

But how could he be the one? She doubted her father would take too kindly to having a half ghoul son-in-law.

Listen to me, she thought to herself, finishing off her now cold cup of coffee. I'm being a absurd idiot like my father. He would be proud of that at least.

"Miyu?" Kuki called to her, his fingers touching the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry. I'll go get ready," she said, standing up from the table.

Her body felt heavy, her fingers clumsy, as she pulled on the plain black dress she had worn to Arima's to meet Haise Sasaki. Maybe they should be having two funerals. After tying the ribbons to her shoes, she walked toward the door of the apartment.

"Where are you going?" Urie inquired, only half dressed in his uniform she had washed and ironed for him.

"I'm going downstairs to the cafe. I'll be back soon," she assured him.

"I'll meet you down there. I'll call a cab to drive us to the cemetery," he said.

"All right," she agreed.

Although her footsteps made only a light clicking sound on the stairs, Miyu's feet seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. Every step was a struggle. She planned on closing the cafe for a yet undetermined length of time. Circumstances in her life had changed, and she needed time to adjust. She felt she could not properly take care of her customers while being preoccupied with her own personal issues.

Miyu wanted to go home. A visit home would be required soon. She needed to see her father, to talk to him. Also, a cleansing ceremony should be performed before the emotional load became overwhelming. The weight was mounting, becoming almost too much, but she would have to bear it.

For this reason, she had avoided serious relationships. She knew better. Yet somehow she had allowed herself to become entwined with people who led her to her past and a whole lot of intense feelings she had not anticipated.

Getting in too deep emotionally with others whether the relationship be friendship or romance always led to trouble for her. She could not help herself from venturing into friendship when she met the sweet Tooru Mutsuki and sincere Ginshi Shirazu. They had frequented her cafe too many times, talked to her about too many personal matters, for her to not get to know them more deeply than most of her regulars. Her relationship with these two were different in that they created a link to her past, sating her curiosity about her old partner Kishou Arima and her pet science project gone awry, Ken Kaneki.

Miyu had been like a stupid kid playing with matches. She had burned her fingers becoming friends with the two members of the Quinx Squad. Then, she had coincidentally started an inferno when she set her sights on Kuki Urie. What the hell was she thinking? Play with fire and one is bound to get burned. She was on fire.

Miyu carefully crafted a sign on a plain piece of white paper. Writing big, unadorned letters using a black marker, she left a note for her customers. Closed until further notice. I am truly sorry for the inconvenience. Please visit cafe :re. Thank you. Manager Miyu Nakashima.

Miyu had heard about cafe :re listening to some of her customers. They liked to compare the two cafes which she did not mind. Business is business and competition is the name of the game. Since she was no longer a player, why not send her patrons to the other cafe? Perhaps it would bring them back along with more when she reopened.

Miyu inhaled laboriously, her breath shaking as she taped the sign to the glass panes of the door. If she reopened...

"Are you ready?" Kuki asked her, appearing behind her as if he had materialized from thin air.

Miyu jumped. She really was not paying attention at all today. Her mind continually drifted elsewhere.

"What are you doing?" he inquired, his eyebrows drawing together questioningly. "Why are you - "

"It's just necessary," she quickly responded, cutting of his query. "I have more pressing matters to attend to at this time."

"Okay," he returned, without asking further questions.

Miyu smiled to express her gratitude. She appreciated him taking the hint that she had not come to this decision easily, and it caused her great sadness. After all, she was closing her livelihood. Her source of happiness as well.

The brakes of the cab squealed as it pulled to a stop at the curb.

"Let's go," he said, extending his black gloved hand to her.

Miyu took his hand, soothed by his strong fingers grasping hers. Don't let go. I need you.

~..'..~

Miyu and Urie arrived at the cemetery last. They walked along the path, hand in hand, to the grave. Arima, Mutsuki, and Yonebayashi stood at the end of the minuscule burial plot covered with fresh dirt. Kaneki stood off to the side, separated from them.

Miyu stared at his dark hair. All of the white was gone. When she came close, she could see his eyes were graphite gray, almost black. Ken Kaneki had returned in full form, erasing all traces of Haise Sasaki. At least the outside now matched the inside. She had abhorred Haise Sasaki only because he was nothing more than a facade, an innocent deception hiding the potential evil underneath.

The whole damn situation with Kaneki still depressed her. Ken was not inherently bad or evil, he had been turned that way because of the abuses he had suffered. She had been one of those abusers. She gnawed on her lower lip nervously.

When Kaneki's dark eyes contacted hers, he made his disapproval of her presence clear. Too late she realized she was actually an outsider with only a tenuous connection to them. She had no right to be here intruding upon their mourning. Bowing deeply, she apologized.

"I am so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you for coming," Arima said without looking at her.

Yonebayashi whimpered, and Mutsuki took the hand of the childlike girl who was probably an older teenager, perhaps eighteen or nineteen. Mutsuki glanced at Miyu offering an apologetic smile for the cold reception. Kaneki merely nodded to acknowledge her apology.

"I'm going to stand over there," Miyu told Urie, squeezing his hand before reluctantly letting it go.

"But - "

"No," she said, interrupting before he could argue. "It should just be the five of you here. You knew him the best. You are his family. I understand. It's okay."

Miyu trudged off to stand under a tree far enough away she could not hear them speaking to each other. Her eyes scanned the cemetery to keep from rudely staring at the small group of mourners.

Most of the grave markers were plain obelisks bearing the family surname of those buried there. A few were bigger, more ornate headstones, most likely belonging to bigger, richer families who had many generations buried here. A small stone angel sat on one of the plots covered with tender young grass. A child? She gulped back her tears and looked away.

A presence generating burning heat and hostility heated her back, raising the hairs all over her body. Fear, frigid and forceful, spilled over her body like ice water. Without turning to face him, she knew Kaneki stood behind her. Keeping her back to him, she forced herself to remain calm, taking slow, deep breaths and concentrating on eradicating the tremor from her body. Her distracted state had allowed him to sneak up on her far too easily.

"What are you doing here?" Ken demanded, his voice low and measured as if restraining himself.

"I-I'm a-a fr-friend," she stuttered, rolling her eyes. Dammit! Her fear ran rampant, and she started to shake.

"You're no friend of mine," he said, placing his hand on the back of her neck. His fingers almost enclosed her neck.

"I'm not here for you," she managed to say without the stutter.

"Are you here for Ginshi?" he asked. His fingers compressed her neck ever so slightly. "Or for Urie?"

"Both," she replied. "Ginshi was my friend. Urie is - "

Miyu gasped when he stepped closer to her. The heat radiating from his body became more intense, heating her cold, shivering body.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he assured her, his breath tickling her cheek.

Miyu wrenched herself out of his grip when he sniffed her deeply. She spun around to face him. There was a smug, knowing grin on his face.

"His smell is all over you. Have you bonded to him?"

"That's none of your business."

"I remember your smell. So delicious," he remarked licking his lips. "Has he taken a taste yet?"

"Don't be disgusting," she snapped.

"I don't mean like that. Who has the dirty mind here?" he teased. "He has the hunger for flesh. I can see it in his eyes. I know that hunger. Be careful."

"So you're concerned for my safety?" she questioned him, doubtful of his sincerity.

"Yes. For some reason I still love you...like a mother," he added because he knew the reference annoyed her.

"Stop it!" she snapped viciously. "I'm not much older than you."

"Oh, but you are," he insisted, the weird grin turning downward into a deep frown. "You have an old soul. Your soul has been around for a very long time, possibly a relic from another life. We both know you're not completely human. Cerberus."

"Don't call me that," she hissed, backing away from him.

"Does Urie know? Has he seen the real you? How long do you think you can keep that face hidden from him?"

With each step he took toward her, she took one back to keep the distance between them.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Miyu questioned him, fighting back her tears.

"It's disappointing really. Seeing you in this present pitiful state makes me sad," he said in his deliberate way of speaking, carefully choosing each word for the most painful impact. "When did you become so weak...so fearful?" His eyes bore into her straight down to her core, chilling her to the bone. "What happened to the beast I knew? The merciless ghoul killer. The demon dog of the CCG. Why have you lost your teeth?"

"That's not me. I'm not that...that creature...not anymore," she insisted. "Urie knows enough about me. I told him what I am."

"But not all of it." He stared at her, capturing her wildly darting eyes. "Take it from me, you can't hide who or what you really are forever. I once hated the ghoul I had become, but I've learned to embrace it, make the best of it. I am what I am after all."

"A cold blooded killer?"

His smile returned; a cold, ferocious grin. "Most often we hate in others what we recognize in them as part of ourselves."

"How deeply philosophical," she retorted with blatant sarcasm.

"Hmph," he snorted derisively, the mean smile widening. "More bluntly stated, it takes one to know one."

"I'm not that person anymore!" she cried, covering her ears as if to block out his words.

"Oh, my dear, you were hardly a person in that form," he corrected her. "I still have the scar on my neck where you bit me." He unbuttoned the collar of his white shirt. "Want to see?"

"Shut up!" she yelled, pressing her hands over her ears more tightly and closing her eyes.

"What's going on here?" Urie asked, putting his arm around Miyu's waist.

Miyu turned into him, hiding her face in the soft leather folds of his jacket over his chest.

"Kaneki? What were you doing?" Urie rubbed her back to soothe her while waiting for an answer. "What did you say?"

"We were talking. Reminiscing. I guess that memory wasn't such a good one."

"Stay away from her. I know you two have a painful past together, but - "

"You have no idea about our past together," Kaneki stated in an ominously calm manner.

"You're right. And I don't want to know. Neither one of you can do anything about the past. So let it be," Urie said, a warning tone in his voice.

The honk of a car acted as an inhibitor, halting the escalation of the conversation and dispelling the tension that had become suffocating.

"Our car is here," Urie proclaimed.

The conversation was officially over, and they were leaving. Miyu was thankful for his bracing arm around her waist as he led her to the yellow taxi.

"If you want to know everything, I'll tell you," she offered. "It's only fair you should know everything. Then you can make a decision of whether you want to be with me or not."

"I don't want to know. I meant what I said, the past is the past. You can't change it so what does it matter?" He turned her to face him, pressing his palm to her cheek.

Miyu studied his eyes that looked not just at her but into her. What she saw there, eased her agitated mind and body. She saw acceptance and most shockingly, love. There was also a determination in his eyes, a resolve to love her no matter what.

"We can't let our pasts destroy our future," he said, pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead.

"I hope you don't change your mind."

"I won't. Let's go home."

Home? According to an old adage, home is where the heart is meaning a home can be made anywhere love abides. Home indicated a place where one belonged, where love lives and joy can be found. She wanted a home with him more than anything in this world.