Ui gets to spend one day with a revived Hairu after all the enemies in the world have been defeated before she will stop taking her medicine and die again.

SCREAMS INTO VOID

WHY

“You – you want to spend the day with me?” Hairu blinks. “There’s no more medicine for me, Koori.”

“I won’t let you be alone,” he insists. “Anything you want, I’ll do it for you.”

“You shouldn’t have to. You shouldn’t have given up your ethics for me,” Hairu tells him.

“I know, but you’re here, even for a day – and it’s worth it.” Ui cringes. “I shouldn’t think that way, but I lov – I mean, I missed you so much.”

She cocks her head. “Why not Arima?”

“I don’t love Arima in that way.” He hunches over. Last days are too short for awkward rejections.

Hairu gasps. “Koori.”

Her hands brush back his hair, and she’s crying. “I love you, too. I wish I could be with you. It’s not fair.”

“I’d take your place at death’s altar if I could,” Ui pleads.

“I wouldn’t let you.” She sticks out her tongue, just like normal. “Let’s go to the fair?”

“Sure.” He allows her to lead him on all the crazy rides, until he’s vomiting from the spinning swings and she’s smearing sticky cotton candy over his cheeks. He buys her a giant stuffed unicorn, even though she’ll lose it in eight hours.

“Something to remember me by,” she tells him.

How does someone dying glow like this?

She spins him in dance and eats her favorite melon buns with him for dinner. Six hours.

When it’s evening, Hairu turns her face to him. “This was a perfect day.”

“I’m glad.” Ui wants to scream. Not yet. She has four hours.

Hairu smiles up at the stars. “You know how I want to die, Ui Koori?”

“How?” he can barely whisper.

“Tangled up in the arms of someone I love. Warm, happy. Under a dozen blankets.” There are tears in her eyes.

No. She oughtn’t cry, not on her last day. Ui dares himself. “Are you asking me to make love to you?”

“Only if you want.” Hairu smiles, her cheeks wet.

He takes her to his apartment, and there he learns that life and sex are awkward and fun and emotional no matter what you intend. And he loves her so much it hurts.

One minute.

He wraps his arms around her and tries not to cry, but she’s already sniffling. They sob together, and just before the clocks strikes midnight, she whispers, Thank you.

She passes the unicorn to him.

Ui finds out about the Garden whilst Hairu, Arima, and Furuta are still alive.

~~kill me~~

Ui was drinking coffee when hell came.

Hell, in the form of hundreds of mailed pictures. Pictures that seem to show Ihei Hairu and Hsaio Ching-Li as children, being cared for by none other than a teenaged Arima Kishou. Others show Nimura Furuta playing tag with a pretty purple-haired girl, and fetuses in test tubes.

Others show the Washuu clan leader, Tsuneyoshi, having children with women half his age. Even he can see the fear in their eyes, behind their kakugans.

The room spins. Ui wants to vomit.

He hears sobbing behind him, and sees a suspiciously calm Hirako embracing Rikai, Shio, and Yusa.

“All of you, too?” Ui rasps.

“Don’t hurt them!” Hirako shoves them behind him.

“What!” Ui would never hurt a child. “Where’s Hairu? Where’s Arima?”

“We need to get them to his office before CCG thinks they need to be exterminated,” Hirako said grimly. “Come on.”

Ui takes Shio’s hand, because he doesn’t know what else to do, but helping kids seems a good idea.

When they open the office door, Arima sits sullen at his desk, Hairu is crying in the center, and Hsaio leans against the wall, her face ashen.

“Shio!” She opens her arms, and her relative falls into them.

“Arima!” Yusa hurls himself over the desk.

“Are we gonna die?” Rikai asks Hirako, who’s busy locking the door.

“No,” Ui assures him.

“You sure?” Nimura Furuta stands in the corner, as far from everyone as he can.

He wants to say yes, of course, you’re our allies. But he feels betrayed himself, and he knows them.

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Hairu lifts her head defiantly.

And it’s her spark that propels Ui forward.

Yes, they’re ghouls. Everyone he loves is a ghoul.They’ve always been ghouls. And yet, their love has been real.

How can this be? Ui doesn’t know the right action, but he knows hugging Hairu isn’t wrong.

“Ui – I – I can explain -”

She’s beautiful. Arima is practically a god. They’re part ghoul.

His worldview is crashing, and he loves it.

“I’m gonna help you. You’ll be safe.” All he regrets is not being someone they could trust before.

Speaking of trust.

“Wait!” His eyes narrow at Furuta, who is slowly inching towards the door. “Sasaki mentioned seeing you at the post office yesterday.”

“Yes?” squeaks the raven-haired boy.

In an instant, Arima is dangling him off the ground.

“Let me go!” whines Furuta. His tone turns panicked. “Please!”

Arima drops him to the ground. “Why?”

Furuta pouts.

Hsaio comes over to glare at him. “Why?”

“Fun?”

“Your vengeance is myopic at best,” Arima tells him. He squats before the young man. “You know, you’re not the only one with a plan. A plan you just threw into danger.”

“A plan?” Furuta’s eyes widen, like he dares to hope that maybe he won’t have to be evil. No, I have to be.

“I have no idea, but if it’s your plan, and if it keeps all of you safe, I’m game.” Ui nods. “Even you, Fruit.”

Hairu smiles at him through her long lashes. And especially you.

Scenario where Ui confesses his feeling to Hairu and her reaction.

*rubs hands together with glee*

Ui closes the door to the copy room. Hairu’s humming at the printer, which seems to be jammed again, but that hasn’t dampened her mood. Hairu’s not commonly annoyed by the little things, and that’s one of the reasons he loves her.

Speaking of love, that’s why he’s here. Alone. With her.

His heart beats fast as she looks up and smiles at him. “Koori!”

——————————————————————————————-

“What are you doing?” Arima Kishou stares at the sight of Hirako Take crouched at the copy room entrance, ear pressed against the closed door. Ihei Shio is giggling, Arima Yusa is trying to shhh him, and Souza Rikai has slid some sort of wire under the door.

Hirako turns bright red.

“Ui’s confessing to Hairu,” hisses Shio. “C’mon.”

And so Arima finds himself engaged in the childhood shenanigans he never had time for, as he presses his ear to the door for snippets of young love.

——————————————————————————————-

“Hi.” Ui waves. His other arm has a rose behind his back. A pink rose to match her hair.

“Hi.” She waves back. “We’re out of colored ink. It’s so sad!”

“Your hair is colorful enough,” he jokes.

Hairu gasps. “Did you just – just make a joke?”

Ui flushes. “Maybe.”

“You’re so cute, Koori!” She dances over to him and kisses his cheek.

“H-hairu, I have to tell you something.” His voice is now a squeak. His eyes are glassy and unfocused and he’s quite possibly more terrified than he has been in battle.

Hairu’s eyes grow. “What’s wrong? Koori, you can tell me anything.”

“I – I – I…” He fumbles for the words stuck in his throat. As a last ditch effort, he holds out the rose.

Hairu pales.

And then an avalanche falls. “I think you’re beautiful and happy and kind and sexy and the world is better for you in it and I love you and I’ve loved you for a long time but been too afraid to say anything -”

Hairu tackles him in a hug. “You’re the cutest thing ever!”

“Huh?” The thorns prick his flesh.

“No!” she gasps, taking the rose. “Bad rose! Don’t hurt Koori!”

She looks into his eyes, smiling so brightly he really should wear sunglasses.

“I’ve never had someone love me before.”

“You have, you just didn’t know,” he croaks. His heart pounds. Why isn’t this easier?

“Why aren’t you smiling? I love you, too, silly!” Hairu tugs his lips into a smile. “Are we dating now?”

“Yes, if you’d like to.” Ui’s eyes fill with tears.

“Yay!” Hairu twirls him around. “This makes fighting the stupid printer worth it!”

“I tell you, it’s worse than a ghoul,” Ui says.

“You made a second joke! I’m so good for you.” Hairu kisses him, because aren’t people supposed to kiss when they’re in love?

Ui nearly falls over, but he hangs on to her – or her lips, really. She tastes like melons and bubblegum, and he can’t get enough.

The door falls open.

Ui shrieks, but Hairu just blushes and keeps on smiling.

“Congratulations,” Hirako says. Shio waves from his position on a cramped pyramid of Yusa and Rikai.

Arima stands behind them and holds his thumb up.

Hairu glows even more.

Scenario where Hairu has nightmares about the Garden and calls Ui up in the middle of the night.

It’s a well-kept secret that Koori Ui both loves and needs his beauty sleep.

So when his phone rings in the middle of the night, it had better be another Owl Operation, or something of that magnitude.

But to his surprise, it’s Ihei Hairu, not Arima.

“Hairu? What’s wrong? Have the Quinx eaten someone yet?”

She has to laugh. “Koori! No, I just …”

“Just what?” He can hear her sniffling.

“I just had a nightmare and I needed to talk to someone, and I thought of you – Arima’s too scary to wake at night…”

She called him instead of Arima! Ui scrambles out of bed. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He walked her home a few hours ago, so even in the dark early morning streets, Ui knows his way.

He arrives in his pajamas and his overcoat, and Hairu has to burst out laughing again. This is why she called her Koori.

She tugs him in and begins crying again.

“What’s wrong?” All this for a dream? No, he can’t believe it.

“I grew up in a weird place,” she says tentatively.

“The dream?”

“For real. I just dreamt I was back there.” Hairu wraps her arms around herself and looks very, very sad. “They were hitting my mom and saying she was too old, and someone pulled me away, and I never saw her again – and I just – I wish I’d been older and stronger. Like Arima.”

Ui barely breathes. Just what sort of hellhole was she raised in? He’s sick. “Hairu, it wasn’t your fault. Ethically, even, you were a kid.”

She blinks back tears. “I kinda wanted you to condemn me.”

“I can’t, because there’s nothing condemnable.” There’s so much more Ui wants to ask her, but he doesn’t want to upset her further. “Do you want coffee? A hug?”

“A hug would be nice.”

He wraps his arms around her, and she leans her head on his chest. They have a big raid on the Tsukiyama’s coming up this week, after all. “If I try to sleep again, can you stay?”

“If you’re okay with that.” This is the closest Ui’s ever been to a woman, and this one is precious to him.

Her light, fluttering heartbeat against his heavy thuds feels so right.