"You're sure you want to do this?" Hide asked, standing in front of the building.
"I don't really have a choice. I don't want-"
"We can turn around and walk away if you want. I just want to be sure you're up for this. You were really sick and it wasn't that long ago."
"I'm fine. You're worrying too much." Kaneki replied.
"Kaneki- I just need to know you're absolutely sure. I don't want you to push yourself too much. It takes time, sometimes even after the sickness to build up your strength,I don't want you to get-" Kaneki silenced him with a kiss.
"Do you trust me?"the ghoul asked.
" with my life,but can I trust you with something that is more precious to me than that? " Hide took Kaneki's hand.
"You know I'd never hurt you." Kaneki replied softly, placing his free hand on Hide's cheek,stroking it gently with his thumb.
"Not intentionally. If you aren't ready...we're about to walk into a building full of CCG agents,not all of them are going to be okay. It would hurt me if-"
"You'll be right there with me. It's okay." Kaneki soothed.
" okay. But I want you to stay with me." The ghoul took his hand.
"Always." He replied, pushing open the door. Hide led him down the hall and to the elevator. They waited silently. As the door opened and they stepped inside, Kaneki rested his head on Hide's shoulder. The human found himself feeling grateful that they were alone,he pulled his friend into a tight hug.
"I'm sorry." Hide said. "After everything that we've been through, seeing you like that and then during the raid, to let you walk into a place like this and- the worst thing that could possibly happen to me, my worst fear is losing you. I don't mean to be a pain, I just-" Kaneki wasn't used to Hide showing such fear.
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise. You'll always have me." Hide nodded, releasing him as the door once again opened.
"You decided to join us after all." Amon said, allowing them to step off the elevator, into the mostly deserted corridor.
"Yes. I owe you for saving Hide, and letting him care for me. I wouldn't be alive right now I didn't have him."
"It seems I also owed you a debt for the night of the raid, consider both debts paid. Follow me."
"You got a meeting room?" Hide asked glancing at his surroundings.
"Yes. I was going to bring you into my office, but I remembered that you weren't exactly fond of the investigation teams being near eye-Kaneki. You'll also notice there are no weapons here and very little people, also unarmed. There will be three others inside waiting for us." Amon stopped at the end of the hall, opening the last door and stepping inside.
A young blonde woman sat down at the table,her expression was unreadable, while the two men slowly rose from their chair, approaching Kaneki.
" I don't suppose you remember us," the dark haired man began. "My name is Aizawa,Raye Aizawa. This is my partner, Kenzo Misora" He gestured to the shorter man beside him. "You saved our lives the night of the raid. We just wanted to thank you, for everything." Raye extended his hand to Kaneki, who hesitated before taking it.
"I'm glad I was able to help." He replied, releasing the inspector's hand only for it to be replaced with his partner's.
"We really owe you, I was afraid I'd never see my wife and daughter again, because of you, I got that change." Kaneki and gave a short nod.
"Tell me," Raye said. "We know you as the eye patch ghoul,surely you must have a name, would it be all right if we-"
"You can call me Kaneki." The ghoul answered.
"Now that we're acquainted, please sit down." Amon invited. Kaneki and Hide did as they were asked.
"I asked you here because frankly, you surprise us. For all the research we've done on ghouls, we've never seen anything like you. Our hope is to better understand your kind. To gather information that can be used to create a bridge so to speak. You've given us a new hope." Amon explained.
"It'll take some trust building on both sides, but from what we've noticed, your strange behavior, we believe you can help us with that." Akira added.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Hide asked.
"Observation, you'll both play a part in this. He was sick recently, with some time and cooperation from you two, we can explore those symptoms maybe come up with a way to help-"
"How do I know your research isn't going to hurt him?" Hide questioned. Amon scoffed.
"He remains your responsibility. Whatever our plans are will be your decision. He's free to leave with you, and we can stop at anytime. If there are ghouls out there like him, we can start to expand our-"
"I don't know. Suddenly you're all for building a bridge, it doesn't seem-"
"We didn't have reasons to believe the ghouls were capable of this kind of behavior, the monsters prey on humans-"
"Not all of us do it because we want to, some do it because that's how we live, we can't eat the way you do. We're not proud of ourselves. Then there are ghouls that don't kill if they can help it. The thought of killing..." Kaneki bowed his head.
"It's okay." Hide said, taking his hand.
"I don't like to hurt anyone, that's not really my nature, but if I have no choice- I don't want to fight anymore, honestly." Akira nodded.
"That's why we're meeting, our new hope for a better future. Give us the insight we need to make Tokyo a better place."
Hide and Kaneki exchanged glances.
"A better future, that's a nice thought, but I'm not sure this is - I'm sorry, I don't know that I can trust any of this. Things like this don't usually go too well."
"Then trust me." Kaneki replied, turning in his chair, to face Hide.
"I do. I almost lost you,Kaneki. I won't risk your life for something that may not happen. There's no guarantee that anything will change."
"Change has to start somewhere and nothing can be guaranteed in life, we both learned that lesson fairly quickly. Let's think about at least." Kaneki urged. Hide tightened his grip on Kaneki's hand.
"You're sure?"
"Yeah. I am." Hide stood up from the table, pulling Kaneki to his feet.
"We'll think about it and let you know." Hide said, leading the ghoul from the room.
"There's a lot of responsibility on those two." Akira said. "Do you think they'll help us?"
"We can only hope. Lives depend on this project, I can't exactly blame them for their suspicions. The ball's in their court we'll see what they do with it."
A/N thanks for taking the time to read, review favor and or follow. I appreciate all your kind words and hope you enjoyed the story.