Kaneki responds to Mutsuki’s letter/bait and meets him at the Chateau in hopes of rescuing Yoriko. He’s overcome with emotion as all the memories he had there in the past well up inside him making him falter in his initial mission and Mutsuki is overjoyed at seeing his beloved former mentor again, thinking he can be further sustained with the knowledge that his Sensei still feels something for him and the other Q’s since the thought of them made him cry

*weeps*

“Sensei!” Mutsuki rushes up to Kaneki and throws his arms around the One-Eyed King, his enemy, the liar who loves him. “You came!”

“Of course I did, Mutsuki.” Kaneki swallows and brushes Mutsuki’s pale hair out of his eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Mutsuki’s eyes gleam.

“You’re not. Let me help you, Mucchan.” Kaneki wraps his arms around Mutsuki. “I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to abandon you.”

“Then why did you?” Anger wells up in Mutsuki, but he can’t bear to pull out his knife and stab Sensei. He’s just…angry. And sad. He wants a tighter hug.

“Because I had to. If I – If I told you what happened with Arima, no one would believe me. But it’s the truth, I swear.” There’s something about Mutsuki that convinces Kaneki that he can tell Mutsuki the truth. That he didn’t kill Arima. He couldn’t.

“Tell me,” says Mutsuki softly, but he’s already guessed. Sasaki isn’t a killer. Unlike him.

And yet, someone good and pure, a good and pure liar like Sensei, thinks he’s worthwhile. He, a wicked and selfish liar. Mutsuki blinks back tears. 

Sensei believes in him. 

Somehow, this makes him want to listen. To avoid the knife. To talk more. To sustain him. 

Because all he’s really wanted is acceptance, and he has that now.