Once he was sure he was alone, Kaneki sighed, collapsing into a newly unpacked armchair and reaching for his novel. It was tiring dealing with the exuberant man for hours on end, especially with his carefully veiled advances and expressions of interest. Kaneki's mind was racing, full of thoughts of the purple haired SS agent, Tsukiyama. He wasn't sure of how trustworthy the man was, as his smiles, while gorgeous and radiant, held a predatory edge that Kaneki didn't like. His eyes were hungry. This was nothing new to Kaneki, the hunger, for access to his wealth or power, and the familiar twist in his gut told him not to trust Tsukiyama, at least until his honest intentions came out. His thoughts wandered down a slightly different path now. Tsukiyama was the sort to use favors and flattery to get what he wanted, the type to give people gifts and gilded words until they submitted. Considering his connections, as long as Tsukiyama considered him interesting, he would be a useful asset.
Kaneki set down his book and got a fresh cup of tea, checking over his university class schedule. He would have to tour the area tomorrow.
For breakfast the next morning, Kaneki bought food from the cafe on the ground floor of the building, because he had nothing in his apartment at the moment. As he yawned and rubbed at his eyes, sitting alone in the dining space, Tsukiyama descended into the room gracefully, radiant and hard to miss with his brightly colored suit and hair. Kaneki approached him, slightly reluctantly and still clinging to coffee.
"Tsukiyama-san, are you free today?" He asked in a low voice, half hoping that the SS would say no.
"Of course, Kaneki-kun! Do you require my assistance?" Was the response, accompanied by the same gleaming smile and expansive hand gestures as the day before. Tsukiyama was obnoxiously chipper considering the time of day.
"Yes. I'm not familiar with this area yet, and I'm about to start school here, so I was hoping that perhaps I could have you show me around a little. I also need to stop by the nearest grocery store." Said Kaneki, eying the taller man hopefully.
"Why of course! How could I leave you to flounder all on your own! Assisting in your daily activities does fall under my jurisdiction as your SS," Jesus Christ he just keeps getting louder. Kaneki leveled a slight glare at him, before sighing "thank you Tsukiyama-san."
On their outing, Tsukiyama played the part of tour guide magnificently, pointing out everything relevant and a few things that weren't, all the while with the same endearing smile plastered to his face. Kaneki for his part curled deeper into his dark sweater, not pleased with how much attention they garnered from passers-by. He did end up enjoying himself more than he liked to admit, because for all his flamboyant gestures, Tsukiyama was an intelligent, well read, and incredibly charismatic person.
After Kaneki was able to get his bearings, Tsukiyama led him to a coffee shop, and Kaneki already loved it. The warm place seemed friendly and quiet, and the bookshelves along one wall called out to him. Both of them preferred to drink black coffee, which fascinated Tsukiyama and frustrated Kaneki. The coffee was also incredible, and Kaneki was loathe to admit that it would probably become one of his favorite places. He was still hoping to maintain distance from the desperately alluring but not quite trustworthy SS agent before him and sharing the same favorite haunts would not help this along.
After finally getting Tsukiyama to stop waxing poetic about the beauty of blooming friendship, Kaneki was able to coax them back to the apartment building as dusk crept in. Upon entering the ground floor cafe, which he was quickly realizing served as something of a common space for the residents of the building, he was able to have his first encounter with some other tenants of the building. A pair of girls was already there, seated and chatting between themselves amiably. One, a slender, beautiful girl with sharp features and dramatic bangs across one eye, glowered openly at Tsukiyama, whilst the lighter haired, curvier girl observed Kaneki openly but without malice. The dark haired girl stalked over to them, and finally seemed to notice Kaneki.
"So you're the new tenant on the third floor then?" She asked, looking him up and down. Despite being slightly shorter than Kaneki, she seemed to be doing her best to stare down her nose at him.
"Yes, I'm Kaneki Ken. Nice to meet you," was all he answered, giving her a smell smile, and ignoring her rudeness. Enemies were not something that Kaneki needed at this point.
"Touka Kirishima." She said curtly, unsmiling and the other girl approached, smiling at Kaneki in a friendly manner.
"I'm Yoriko Kosaka, nice to meet you," she held out her hand and Kaneki accepted it, smiling wider despite himself.
"So you're the one who got saddled with him as your SS?" Asked Touka, gesturing at Tsukiyama.
"Now Touka-chan, just because you don't like me is no reason to try and turn Kaneki against me when we barely know each other." Tsukiyama's face was morphing from his carefully measured smile into a predatory smirk as he observed the girl. She snorted at this, and turned back to Kaneki.
"I've known this guy for years. Watch yourself, new guy," she said warningly, openly glaring at Tsukiyama.
"Touka-chan, if you stopped glowering so you would be so beautiful," said Tsukiyama. "I mean no harm towards Kaneki-kun, or indeed even you."
Kaneki, having had enough of the tense atmosphere of the room, decided to escape. "It was nice to meet you, Kirishima-San, Kosaka-san. I'm getting tired, so I am heading back to my room." With this he turned on his heel and headed towards the elevator. He was caught off guard to hear footsteps follow him, and hear the cheerful "ciao" behind him, and Tsukiyama joined him in the elevator. The entire walk there, he felt Kirishimas eyes burning a hole in his back.
As they exited the elevator, Tsukiyama lingered a moment in the hallway, positioning himself such that Kaneki was forced to as well. "I enjoyed our day together, Kaneki-kun. I do hope we can do it again sometime." A hand came to rest on his shoulder and Tsukiyama was perhaps standing slightly closer than was necessary. There was a brief moment of pressure and warmth behind the hand, before it slid off and Tsukiyama was gliding down the hallway, calling a lingering 'farewell' over his shoulder.
Kaneki returned to his room, tired and desperately wishing that he was less susceptible to Tsukiyama's carefully manufactured charms. He buried himself in his unfinished novel, using the distraction of elegant descriptions of horror and gore to clear his mind and shore up his emotional defenses.
A/N: here's chapter 2! I am always nervous when I write for TG because the characters are so complex and I worry about oversimplifying them. I am having a lot of fun with this fic though! Any feedback or comments you have to offer would be really appreciated! Thank you for reading my story.