The day had gone by pretty smoothly after the incident with Touka practically murdering Ryoko with her eyes. She just pretended that Ryoko didn't exist. So of course Ryoko did the same with her, which wasn't very challenging considering Hide kept dragging her every which way to see all kinds of different animals. Hide really was an energetic person, she figured he would be but she really underestimated how Kaneki described him. It was so funny to see them together because she knew they were really great friends, but they were so different it was unreal. Kaneki, quiet, shy, and not very social at all, along with Hide who was loud, very extroverted, and probably would strike up a conversation with literally anyone he could get to give him their attention.
Kimi and Nishio kept to themselves quite a lot, which she had expected because they seemed like that couple that just wanted to do their own thing. All in all Ryoko liked everyone, even Touka who seemed to hate her at the moment. When she wasn't glaring at Ryoko she seemed like a decent person, and she did go along with Hide every time he grabbed her by the arm. She could've easily gotten out of his grasp at anytime. To be honest, she probably could have broken every single bone in his body. She assumed it had been the affection for Kaneki that was holding her back, or maybe she did really like Hide. To an extent.
"I'm just going to get us drinks, okay?" Kaneki mumbles lowly and she nods her head as he releases his hand that's been latched onto hers all day. All of them go up to the counter except for Hide and Ryoko who were left with the objective of finding seats for everyone. Of course there were a few open tables, but she let Hide lead the way.
He sat down, and Ryoko sat in the seat next to him. "So, Ryoko, do you go to uni? I've never seen you before. And Kaneki won't tell me how you met."
"Oh, probably because it was really lame." She waves her hand laughing a bit, "He helped me pick up my books, someone bumped into me and I dropped them. I wrote my number in a book and gave it to him. That's all, but no I don't go to school. I don't even have a job! My best friend paid off my apartment, we used to share it."
Hide seems surprised by this information, "Wow you don't work or go to school. You're living the dream. You should come to Kamii with Kaneki and me! I'm sure he'd enjoy that, he wouldn't have to daydream about you because you'd be right there!" He seems to reflect on his words for a moment, probably wondering if telling me Kaneki daydreams about me was a good idea.
Hide seems to truly believe that not doing anything is 'living the dream' but Ryoko could not say that it wasn't anything other than the total opposite. There were many days she often wished that she was in school, or just doing something. She had thought about getting a job multiple times, but there wasn't much that she really had to pay for. Ayato would give her money for whatever she wanted, he was solely against Ryoko working in the first place. But she had thought about going to university often, learning something new and fitting in with society for once always seemed like a wonderful experience sometimes. She just doubted her own abilities, so Ryoko procrastinated on taking entrance exams and really going for it. But if Hide wanted her to go, and Kaneki wanted her there then maybe that would be the push she needed into finally going through with it.
"He daydreams about me?" She blushes a bit, trying to let him know that it's okay that he let that one small detail slip.
"Yeah, I've never seen him like this before. You make him happy, thanks for that he's been really weird for the past month." Hide scratches behind his head with a big cheesy grin plastered upon his cute boyish face. She admires it momentarily, Kaneki can smile like this but it is very rare, and he's not necessarily as cute and boyish as Hide is. Ayato would never smile like this. His was more of a smirk, she falters just for a moment at the thought of my practically long lost friend, but composes herself as soon as she notices her once calm expression has changed.
She feels a slight pang of sadness in her heart for Hide, he has no idea. She felt bad for Kaneki too, because she knew it hurt him deeply to not be able to tell his best friend his largest secret. "I'm sure it's fine Hide! He always talks about you, and school. I know so much about you already because of what Kaneki has said. He makes me happy too."
"I know you've been stealing him from me, he never hangs out with me anymore!" Hide laughs, Ryoko joining him in it, but he pats her on the back afterwards. "Just kidding, it's fine. I approve because I like ya."
"What are you two laughing at?" Nishio asks as he takes a seat across from Hide and Ryoko with Kimi.
Hide grins, "Don't worry about it!"
Kaneki takes the seat next to Ryoko handing her the cup he bought with water inside, it has a straw and everything. She feels almost like a kid again, "Does this mean I have to drink after you and get cooties?"
"Yes, that's exactly what it means. And I'll have you know I haven't taken a drink so it's going to be me who's getting your 'cooties'." Kaneki rolls his eyes whilst making air quotes as he says the word cooties; she takes a sip of the water through the straw staring at him.
She gasps and throws her elbow to Kaneki in the ribs lightly. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?"
His face instantly changed from mischievous to worried, he did his nervous habit of reaching behind his head and scratching it almost instantly. "I- I um.."
She speaks lower so no one can hear her, and leans closer to Kaneki looking him dead in the eyes. "You should know I don't like when people roll their eyes at me, they get punished."
Kaneki's face turns bright red, and he stutters like crazy. Everyone is eyeing him probably wondering what Ryoko had said to make him so flustered. She hasn't gotten any less close to him, so their eyes are still connected. She sticks her tongue out at him, handing him the bottle back. He takes it and looks the complete opposite of Ryoko, she can only wonder what his facial expression is right now.
Nishio chokes on his food from laughing, and Kimi immediately pats his back trying to help him. Nishio is one of the bravest people Ryoko knew, she couldn't choke down human food to save her life. "Nishio are you okay?"
"Yeah sorry, I've seen Kaneki turn red before but he looked like a tomato for sure that time."
"Hey!" Kaneki growls.
Hide hits Kaneki on the back, "Couldn't agree more. Man, you need to work on that. You gotta get a better poker face."
She laughs; Kaneki complains that Hide should be on his side. Ryoko checks her phone to see that it was 6 pm. "Anyways, we better go otherwise we're going to be late getting to Uta's."
Kaneki nods his head, and stands up waving at everyone. "Sorry we can't stay longer, we have to go pick something up."
"Aw, man. That's no fun we haven't even seen everything!" Hide whines.
"I'm sure Touka's happy to go with you Hide." Ryoko smiles wickedly, and Touka fake smiles at Hide. She is so going to kill Ryoko if she gets a chance. Well, at least she might attempt it.
"Of course Hide."
"Awesome! See you two later," Hide grabs Touka and strings her along with him. All four of the others are left laughing, she knew Touka was going to hate her even more for this but Ryoko didn't care at all. She'd have to get over it eventually because Ryoko didn't plan on going anywhere.
"You picking up your mask finally?" Nishio asks, and Kaneki nods his head. Nishio grunts in approval, at least she assumes that's what stands for Nishio's stamp of approval.
"Nice to meet you Kimi, you too Nishio." She smiles at both of them.
Nishio nods his head, "You too, I can't believe you're real honestly."
"Nishio!" Kimi smacks him.
"What! Look at her and look at Kaneki!"
"It was very nice to meet you too, Ryoko. I hope we see more of you." Kimi grabs Nishio by the ear and drags him away towards the penguin exhibit. Kaneki and Ryoko are both laughing, watching as Nishio lets out yelps of pain while Kimi scolds him.
"What did he mean, look at her and look at Kaneki?" Kaneki frowns, and she can see the troubled look in his eyes. Oh dear.
She smiles brightly at him and links her arm with his, "I think he meant, wow Kaneki's so sexy and Ryoko looks like a dumpster."
Kaneki stops walking and glares at Ryoko, "You do not look like a dumpster, Nishio would never use the word sexy to describe me, and I am 99 percent sure he meant it the other way around."
"Nah he totally thinks you're sexy." She giggles and grabs his hand skipping forward.
"You are completely delusional!"
She puts her hand over her heart as if he has stabbed her, "Me? Delusional?"
"Yes," Kaneki chuckles and uses their conjoined hands to pull her closer to him. As soon as she gets into his proximity he tucks her hair behind her ear and smiles very fondly at Ryoko. "But I appreciate the sentiments behind your delusional lies."
She can't help but grin back at him, Kaneki is so beautiful up close every time she got a chance to observe him she took it. Most of the time she wanted to remove the eyepatch so she could examine his whole face, but she knew it's on there for the better. She glances at his lips momentarily, and a thought crosses her mind but she quickly dismisses it for many reasons.
Feeling flustered she throws her arms around Kaneki instead, and embraces him tightly. She can feel him laugh, and she isn't sure if it's out of complete relief or because he's never seen her really flustered.
"Okay we really need to get going," She lets go of him, shaking off the feeling of uncertainty slowly shrouding her whole body.
Kaneki nods his head and she follows him towards the exit of the zoo. They manage to get a cab pretty easily, and it drops them off right in front of Uta's shop. The driver looks a little confused as to why Kaneki and Ryoko would be coming to this creepy place, but little did he know. Kaneki paid him, and both of them stepped out of the car walking into Uta's shop. She knew he was going to give her so much shit for actually bringing Kaneki with her because of what he had said two weeks ago whenever Ryoko was here with Ayato.
Uta steps around the counter after hearing the bell on the door ring, he looks Kaneki and Ryoko up and down. A grin forms on his face immediately, and she's almost scared to see what he was going to say. There were so many options flowing through Ryoko's mind, some of the totally horrible. Uta had a very dark sense of humour, but not in the way you normally interpret it. Uta's sense of humour was he basically got off by totally embarrassing others to the point that they want to die. Literally die.
"Ah, you brought your baby making pal after all!" Uta clasps his hands together letting out a very loud laugh that rings throughout his whole entire store.
Ryoko smacks her hand to her forehead immediately, this was one of the worst case scenarios. "Uta, you are so lucky I like you."
"Such a feisty kitty as always." Uta growls, and walks back behind the counter, surely to get both of their masks.
"Ry what is he talking a-about?" Kaneki stutters, she can't even muster up the courage to look at him. She didn't want him to see how red her face was, even though his is probably 10 times worse. It's really easy to fluster or embarrass Kaneki, so she can only imagine how he has reacted to Uta's making babies comment.
She sighs heavily, peaking at Kaneki through her fingers, "Whenever you first called me I was here with Uta and my best friend. They made a joke and of course Uta's not the type let me live that down."
"I see." Kaneki gulps, his face just as red as Ryoko's own. "Well, whenever I first came in here Uta scared me. Touka laughed at me while I sat there on the floor."
She snorts, because that sounds like something Ayato would do. Him and his sister were a lot alike for them not getting along. Well, except the fact that Touka hated Ryoko and Ayato loved her.
"Who is your best friend? You never talk about them. Am I going to be able to meet them?" Kaneki looks at Ryoko, his face returning into its normal complexion.
"Ah, maybe someday. I don't talk about them because they're always gone." She pokes Kaneki in the nose, and he wrinkles it following her to Uta's desk. As soon as the two get over there Uta set's the masks out onto it.
He rubs his palms together as if he cannot wait for the pair to try them on, "Alright Kaneki I want you to try yours on first."
Kaneki nods his head and goes to sit in the seat Uta has designated the fitting chair. When Kaneki sits down, Uta helps him put on the bottom half of the mask first. Next he fit a black leather eyepatch over Kaneki's human eye to match the leather that went with the bottom of his mask. Ryoko wasn't quite sure how but it latched onto the bottom part of his mask effortlessly and when Uta pulled his hands away it all looked like one full mask. It was really amazing, she loved it. It was simple, but it suited Kaneki well. You could see the gums of the mask, and along with that it had very prominent teeth where it could zip open in the middle.
"What do you think Ryoko? Nice huh?" Uta asks me and she nods her head happily, it really looks nice on Kaneki and she likes the concept of covering his human eye since he always has his eyepatch on his ghoul eye.
She fans herself dramatically, "Wow Kaneki it looks really good on you."
"You think so?" Kaneki says after unzipping the mouth so he can talk, also rolling his ghoul eye.
"Definitely!"
Uta pushes Kaneki up quickly grabbing her by the shoulders shoving Ryoko into the chair. He quickly places the mask on her face, it has a strap as well, but it's long and it goes around her head to keep it on. She doesn't even have to ask what it is because as soon as Uta removes his hands, she reaches up and touch the ears on the top of the mask. She sees Kaneki staring at her, and the worst part is Ryoko can't even imagine what the hell is going through his mind right now. She gets up and goes to stand next to Kaneki who is now in front of the mirror both of the young adults staring at their unfamiliar masks. Ryoko's, of course, is a cat, but it looks more like a leather masquerade mask. She would actually like it if the ears weren't so ridiculous.
"I like yours," Kaneki wraps his arm around her shoulder squeezing her. "It looks like catwoman."
"Okay, then let's trade." She glances over to him with a cheesy grin.
Kaneki scratches the back of his head, "Um.."
"That's what I thought." She takes it off, and grin huge at Uta. "Thank you so much how much-"
Uta waves his hand in front of himself. "Ayato paid for the both of you."
"Ayato? Who's that, I feel like I've seen his name before." Kaneki mutters.
"Oh, awesome. No one Kaneki, I used to work for him."
Uta cocks an eyebrow at the seaweed haired girl, and Ryoko glares at him the whole way out of the store making sure that he doesn't say anything to Kaneki. After rushing Kaneki out of Uta's they are walking in the always scary streets around this place. It was truly the worst side of the ward.
"Ryoko why do you seem so in a rush? What are you not telling me? Who is this Ayato?" Kaneki folds his arms over his chest and steps in front of her stopping in mid-stride.
She sighs, and chews on the inside of her cheek momentarily. "Ayato is my best friend that I mentioned earlier."
"What's so bad about that?"
"He's um," She drags her hands down her face, man she really wishes this could've waited to a later time but she supposes it was better to tell Kaneki now, rather than wait and him hate Ryoko for it. "Ayato is Touka's brother."
Kaneki's brows furrow together, he doesn't say anything for what seems like forever. She doesn't know what he's thinking, but Ryoko almost wants to scream. Kaneki's corner of his mouth twitches a bit, but he composes himself and looks over to Ryoko, "Well, when can I meet him?"
"What?" She's completely in shock.
"Ryoko," Kaneki shakes his head and smiles at her. "I know what Touka has said about him, but if he's your best friend then there must be a good side to him. I trust your judgement. Touka exaggerates and it is her brother so I imagine they would have a little sibling rivalry anyways. Plus I wouldn't let something ridiculous like that ruin our relationship." He says it as if it's clear as day, and that it should've been completely obvious to Ryoko, but she couldn't help thinking otherwise.
She lets out a sigh of relief, "Thank you so much Kaneki. I don't know, I'm not even sure when I'll see him again. He's gone most of the time."
Kaneki seems to accept this answer, and they continue walking towards Ryoko's apartment. Kaneki and her talk about the new book both of them got the whole way there. Of course everyone would think the two would talk about something more meaningful, but nope, books were their thing. As soon as they arrived she glanced up at the building that always seemed to loom over her. Ever since Ayato stopped living with her the apartment just wasn't the same. Granted having Kaneki around made it a lot more bearable. She didn't want to be one of those sad love sick girls, that when a boy came along their whole life changed but every time that she thinks about it her life was so uneventful before she ran into Kaneki. She sat around her apartment reading, she'd watch tv shows, and on the slim chance that she went out she always returned home quickly. Ryoko was a shut in. The only time she'd really go out is whenever Ayato came around, which was scarce. She was really thankful for Kaneki, whether he knew it or not.
She could've very easily finally been persuaded into going to aogiri tree with Ayato, and that just wasn't a plausible cause in her book. She had tried so hard to stay out of it, if she ever went into it, it would be going against all of her morals. Whether or not her best friend was involved with them or not. They were a terrible organization who terrorized people who Ryoko didn't really think deserved it. Not to mention she didn't get along with anyone in it besides Ayato, and there was no guarantee that she would be able to pair up with him.
"Do you want to come up?" She asks Kaneki, looking up at him through her eyelashes trying to be persuasive, as if he needed the extra push. He looks surprised as ever.
Kaneki scratches the back of his head, as per usual. " Are you sure? I haven't been over there since I stayed the night."
She can say he seems to avoid going into her apartment all the time. Every night they've gone out he brings her home and then leaves without even giving Ryoko a chance to ask him if he wants to stay. She doesn't know if it brings back bad memories for him, but he's going to have to get over it at some point.
"Yes I am sure, and I know. I think we should actually hang out. You know, without you taking a bite out of me and puking on my shoes." She shoots Kaneki a look, and can immediately tell he is extremely embarrassed. She didn't really mind the fact that he bit her so much as she was mad because he puked on her good shoes. She had really liked those shoes.
"I thought we agreed not to bring that up," Kaneki groans his face growing more red by the second.
She laughs as they walk inside and to the elevator, one immediately dings open, "No you suggested it and I laughed at you." They walk in the elevator and she presses the button to go to her floor.
Kaneki hangs his head in shame, not continuing with the conversation. She doesn't blame him, it was a lost cause. Of course he had absolutely messed up their first date, but there was still something about him that she liked so much. So she had dismissed it, and forgave him. She drags him down the hall to her door, and unlocks it walking in ahead of Kaneki.
"Wow I almost forgot how nice the water pressure was here, makes me miss the place a little bit." She can hear his voice and see him standing before her but can barely grasp the concept that he is actually standing in front of Ryoko. She's nearly positive all of the blood drained from her face at that exact moment. She was completely caught off guard.
"Who is that?" Kaneki is suddenly next to Ryoko staring at the man across from them.
Ayato stands in the middle of my living room, a towel hung lowly around his waist. His hair was still wet and in chaotic strands sticking everywhere as if he had just towel dried his hair. Ryoko could see the water drops that were still on his bare skin, and every scar that she had seen before was noticeable to her. Some from working with Aogiri Tree, some just from Ayato being Ayato. One specifically from saving Ryoko from a ghouls Kagune, that was interesting. She shakes off the thought, and looks between both of the boys. His eyes were now firmly set on Kaneki, who was not breaking contact with Ryoko's purple haired best friend. They were practically having a stare off, Kaneki actually looking a little bit angry. These were absolutely not the circumstances that she wanted these boys to meet under.
This could not get any worse.
"Uh. Kaneki, this is Ayato. Ayato this is Kaneki," Ryoko introduces them in hopes that one of them will break the intense glare contest they have going, but neither of them move an inch. She reaches down slowly and pinches her arm, hoping that maybe by some slim chance this was just some horrible nightmare that she was having. She was definitely awake though. She wanted to sink into herself at this very moment, and disappear. How she wishes that she were not Ryoko right now.