Kaneki hated Touka's new rabbit plushy with a burning passion.
It was a gift to Touka from Hinami, because everyone knew how much Touka adored the fluffy little crepesculars- it really was quite predicable, since Touka had a mask with a rabbit face imprinted as a pattern.
She loved that bunny, with its baby fine white fur and shiny pink eyes, and that large light green ribbon tied around the nonexistent neck. Kaneki despised it- no, not because he hated cute things.
It was all something else.
Every night, Touka would shoo Kaneki away to his own bedroom so she could cuddle the stuffed animal to her heart's content. Kaneki would always stand outside of her room, fuming with rage. He should have been the one Touka was snuggling with at night, not- not- not some stupid stuffed animal!
Why anyone at Touka's age would have wanted a fluffy, motionless thing, Kaneki and the world would never know.
He was currently in the bathroom, brushing his teeth with diligence. He didn't want to see Touka happily snuggling her plush rabbit, a smile curving from each cheek. He didn't want to see Touka with someone- no, something- else.
Kaneki spat out the water and watched the clear liquid swirl down the drain and disappear. With a slight clink of rubber against glass, his toothbrush was tucked away onto the cabinet, far from his view or anyone else's.
He walked down the corridor to his room only to hear two shouts: A high-pitched child's, and a deeper, more masculine voice. Brushing away a triangle of cloud white hair corralling into his eyes, Kaneki found Hinami and Nishiki in a panic- in his own room.
"It's all your fault!" Hinami was accusing Nishiki. He snorted, glaring at her through his glasses as he snapped back at her, "Well maybe if someone gave me a break this wouldn't have happened!"
Then they saw Kaneki standing in the doorway at them, an 'Oh, really?' expression on his face. Curious. But also dangerous.
"Sorry," Nishiki quickly apologized, face blanching at the sight of Kaneki. "We- I-" He ran a tongue over his now dry lips- "Kinda messed up your room, so you're gonna have to stay with Touka."
"I see." Kaneki nodded, and he could have sworn that there was a rather large, damp looking, yellowish stain at around Nishiki's crotch. Perhaps Hinami was even snickering.
Kaneki opened up the door to Touka's room, carefully glancing inside the simply decorated place. She wasn't lying in bed like he would have suspected her to, but laying out her clothes for the next day- that is, Touka was doing so until she saw Kaneki standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice was hostile, but not nearly as hostile as she had been a year ago.
"Nishiki and Hinami messed up my room, apparently Nishiki wanted her to give him a break from work," Kaneki explained. "So I have to stay here."
"Hmmph." Touka gave a scoff, running her hand across the soft fabric of her school uniform. "I have a futon right across- here." She patted the mattress and Kaneki asked, "Futon? Why can't I stay on the bed? Not that I am implying anything."
"Bah!" Touka protested. "You always strangled me when you came over for nightmares. I really wanted a cup of water, and you wouldn't let me go! You kept hugging me in my sleep!" She pointed an accusing finger at Kaneki. "So that's why you're staying on the futon."
Kaneki let out a sigh and said, "Alright."
He climbed onto the futon and while Touka went over to her desk to gather up her homework for the next day, Kaneki shot a dead-eyed glare at her precious bunny.
"It's all your fault I'm staying on a futon," he muttered. Apparently, Kaneki wasn't as quiet as he thought because then Touka whipped away from her desk, hands on hips.
"Kaneki, why are you giving poor Fluffy-san such a death look?" Fluffy-san? Kaneki managed to hold in a now rare snicker.
"I'm not," Kaneki lied bashfully, turning away so that Touka wouldn't catch him blushing wildly.
"Are you jealous of Fluffy-san?"
"No," Kaneki admitted flatly. "Why would I be jealous of a rabbit? It's just a toy."
"Yeah," Touka said quietly, as she turned out the lights and crawled onto her bed. "Just a toy."
Was she asleep now? He sat up in the futon and cast a glance at the navy-haired girl. Snores emitted from her, so Kaneki's suspicions were confirmed.
He climbed up silently from the futon- he had practiced so much since he had escaped- and cast a falsely pitying glance at Fluffy-san.
"Sorry about this, but I'm not sorry," he stated. And with a single nudge, Fluffy-san tumbled off the bed and onto the futon.
"At least you fell on the futon," he said under his breath. With the deed done, Kaneki curled up under the covers, draping them over him and Touka once more.
She seemed to take no notice, so content that his operation had been a success, Kaneki fell asleep again.
And then, while he was half-awake- only half awake- Touka cracked any eye open to discover Fluffy-san to be nowhere in sight, and Kaneki in his place.
"Where is Fluffy-san?" she demanded.
"Hmm?" Kaneki said. "He went on vacation." Touka let out a grunt of disapproval and Kaneki added, "Yeah, a night-long vacation."
"But who am I gonna cuddle?"
"Guess." With that, Kaneki buried his face in Touka's shoulder. She began to protest but was interrupted by a rumbling snore.
Maybe cuddling him wasn't so bad. Fluffy-san may have been squishier, but he didn't amuse Touka with snoring.
It also helped that Kaneki, in quite the literal sense, had a brain. A brain that told him to love her.
So right before Touka closed her eyes again, she said, "You can be a huge idiot sometimes."
"But at least you are my idiot," she added, joining him in sleep.