myths, magic, and fandoms
Ayato is frickin’ terrified. He may have woken Hinami up at 3 am screaming because he found a mouse skittering across his arm. He was too scared to even use his kagune.
Hina, naturally, found it cute and adopted it.
Ayato’s pulse was slowly returning to normal when Yomo, Touka, and Kaneki burst in, thinking he was being murdered.
Everyone then panicked because they were not expecting Hinami there. And Ayato’s pulse went straight back up. And he fainted the results are unknown.
Content note: homophobia.
What are you scared of?
Furuta grinds his teeth as he stumbles home, like he’s drunk, and he wishes he was but he isn’t.
His earnest face, those overly large green eyes, and those pale pink lips, leaning oh-so-close to Furuta. Not a trace of makeup, and a collared shirt like he’d gone straight to the bar from work.
“Nothing,” Furuta told him, pretending to sip his beer. Really, he’s looking for a girl, any girl who reminds him of Rize, so he can fuck her and pretend she’s Rize.
Everyone here is scared of something.
Furuta struggles with the lock to his apartment. As soon as he’s inside, he slams his fist into the wall.
“Then, idiots like you.”
Why? Aren’t you here to drown your sorrows in alcohol and women? The young man sipped his soda. You’re too young for that.
Furuta snorts. He’s young, yes, but for his kind, he’s getting old. He’s plenty old enough for waste. “Why are you here?”
The young man shrugs. “Looking for love.”
Furuta forces himself to eat the rotten rice in his refrigerator, the rotten rice that would even make a human vomit. Just to get the taste of his lips off his tongue.
Furuta shoved him outside, into the alley, which was bathed in moonlight. He bit his lips, which tasted like salt and aftershave.
The man’s arms frantically grab Furuta’s shoulders as he pushes his tongue into Furuta’s mouth, like he is eager to know him, like he is free.
And Furuta feels lost in possibilities, in a new idea, in the idea of spending his life with this gentle man.
Furuta gags into his toilet bowl.
“Wait!” cries the man at last, pushing Furuta back. “It’s wrong – I don’t even know your name!”
He looks beautiful, and hopeful, and yet –
and yet –
Furuta’s name is his undoing.
“I have many.” Furuta steps back. If he does this, he’ll be a pariah like Matsuri. He’s not like Matsuri, not at all.
If he does this, he’ll be stained forever, unable to live the normal life that’s impossible anyways.
“I can’t do this.”
“But -”
“I hate you!” Furuta sounds like a child as he spins around to flee home.
Furuta stares at his bloodshot eyes in his mirror as he cleans the vomit off his shirt.
What are you scared of?
Myself.
I like this idea.
“I need you,” Uta murmurs in that special voice of his, that special voice that allows only Uta to make such a corny line sound sensual.
Yomo grunts his agreement as he hops onto a table in Uta’s apartment. He nuzzles Uta’s neck as the clown fumbles for his coat buttons.
It takes Yomo a while to realize Uta is still on the first button. “Um.”
Uta snickers. “I was wondering how long you were gonna be lost kissing me.”
“Do you need help?”
“I don’t know how you manage to wear this behemoth.” Uta can’t stop laughing.
Yomo rolls his eyes and grabs the buttons. He jerks one off, but then Uta yelps.
“Uta?!” Yomo gasps. His lover’s hair is caught in his coat. “Shit!”
“I didn’t know you were into sadism,” Uta teases as Yomo tries to gently remove every hair. “Oh, just pull it out.”
“Then you’ll tease me about BDSM again.” Yomo’s face is red.
“I’m gonna no matter what. You should know that, Renji.”
Yomo sighs and tears out Uta’s hair. He stares forlornly at the black strands wrapped around the button. “Now what am I gonna do when Touka and Ayato see this?”
Uta snaps his fingers. “Simple. Tell them we’re married and have a kid on the way. Just like Touka and Ken.”
“Hey, Hinami…” Ayato clears his throat. He leans across the counter of :Re.
“Hi, Ayato!” Hinami waves. “I was just telling Touka about my idea to open up a house for all the Dragon Orphans.”
“Uh – a house? like an orphanage?” Ayato blinks in surprise.
“Yeah. I mean, we all know what it’s like to be alone…so I want these kids to feel that as little as possible.” Hinami swings her legs back and forth. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” he squeaks. Touka smirks at him from behind Hinami.
How dare you. He wants to strangle his pregnant sister. How dare she encourage him to ask Hinami out when she knew Hinami was gonna come in with the next Mother Teresa plan? Now he just feel dumb.
“Eh…Hinami.” He licks his lips.
“Yes?” Hinami straightens.
“Do you – do you -”
Touka makes a rolling gesture with her hands.
“Do you like bread?”
In the corner of the coffeeshop, Saiko the Quinx spits her coffee all over that prim investigator Ui.
Yes please.
Furuta comes home to find his s/o vomiting in their bathroom.
“Don’t tell me you’re pregnant,” he jokes, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her small shoulders. Her eggplant hair is an identical color to Sizes, though always kept in an elaborate side-braid.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you,” she replies tightly.
“Huh?”
His s/o whirls around. “I’m vomiting because – because I’m just a replacement for Rize to you, aren’t I?”
“Who? Are you sure you’re sane right now?” Furuta holds up his hands even as his heart races. He laughs nervously. She knows, she knows – he doesn’t know how but she fucking knows.
“You sicken me,” she tells him, tears in her eyes. “I’ve followed you around and around – you and your family. I knew the truth had to be bad – with ghouls leading the CCG – but rape? I thought it was too easy to make you fall for me – turns out the joke was on me, right? Because I’m your replacement for Rize.”
“I never raped anyone – I’m trying to stop my family!” he whispers. His eyes are wide. And he’s shriveling into himself.
“Oh, and forcing a ghoul to breed kakuhous is so much more moral, right? You’re a monster,” she shoots back.
“Aren’t all ghouls?” he asks flatly.
Her voice comes out soft, broken. “I didn’t think you were.”
“I’m the worst of all. Just wait until I tell you what I’ve done to Rize now,” he says impulsively. He slams the bathroom door shut, locking them in together. Kill me. Do it. If it’s already ruined, why not go down in flames?
Or force me to kill you. Because he really doesn’t want to hurt her, and that bothers him.
She holds up her hands. Her strong voice re-emerges. “One: stop trying to make me hate you, because I’m dangerously close to that right now. Two: Rize’s been freed and is recovering in the hands of Goat and Kaneki Ken. How else did you think I found out what she looked like?”
Furuta gapes at her.
“Guess you can’t attack them now.” She shrugs and slumps to the floor. “I don’t…I’ve always thought I knew the worst of you. I even learned about Rize a long time ago. And tried to save her, but today, when I finally succeeded, when I finally saw her…it just seems like a joke, Souta.”
Furuta’s mouth dries at her use of his secret name. The name he only told her recently.
“So you’ve been working with Goat this whole time?” Furuta isn’t sure if he admires or hates her.
“Yeah. I guess we played each other, hmm.” She glances up at him and extends her hand. His gloved fingers intertwine with hers as he sits besides her, still shocked.
“I had to free her, for her sake. And also for yours. I don’t want this on your conscience.”
“Joke’s on you, because I don’t have one.” He snorts.
“Then why are you sitting here with me?” She sniffles. “I…do you think I am sickened because I hate you? Do you think I betrayed you because I hate you? I did it all because I do love you, even if I was just a joke to you. It hurts, that’s all.”
Furuta remembers the moments spent rolling around under his Bureau Director desk, the kisses outside Helter Skelter, the wink she used to first catch his attention. “I don’t think I can love anyone other than Rize.”
“Wanna try?”She gives him a stern look. “If that was love, it was also corrupted hate.”
He’s silent.
“Your emotional provocations indicate I might not be just a replacement to you after all,” she tries again.
“I can’t love,” he blurts out. He shakes. “I can’t – dammit, dammit, fuck!”
“We’ll find a way. A way forward. Starting with the appointment you have to speak with Kaneki Ken tomorrow, in the 24th Ward.” She holds out her hand.
A small smile grows on Furuta’s face despite himself. And perhaps, a small hope grows inside him.
He reaches for her clumsily, and, like a child, holds her tight against his chest.
“By the way,” she whispers, wiping her eyes, “I am actually pregnant.”
OH MY GOD.
“Pleasure-chan?” Kaneki smiles at the silly nickname as his daughter slowly pushes open the door. Is she planning on scaring him again?
“D-D-Daddy.” His little girl hiccups and steps into their apartment, tears streaming down her face. Her knee is scraped deeper than her healing cells can cope with.
“What happened?” he squeaks, freezing.
Touka cries out her daughter’s name and races over to them. She picks up Pleasure-chan as the little girl sobs into her mother’s hair.
“The older kids say they don’t like ghouls.” Pleasure wipes her eyes. “And I t-t-tried to be their friend, and they said okay, but only if they could push me because they wanted to see if I healed.” She gasps. “And then they did but they still didn’t want to be my friends!”
Touka and Kaneki’s kakugans emerge.
“Okay, well, first we’re gonna clean up your knee, hmm? Then we’ll talk to the older kids.“ Touka glares at Kaneki.
Half an hour later, Pleasure is happily munching an apple with Uncle Yomo and Uncle Uta, who promises her a temporary tattoo, and Touka and Kaneki are on their way to the park.
Touka sniffs. “I smell her on the kid in the gray T-shirt.”
“Me too.” Kaneki stomps closer.
“Hey, are you the ones who beat up the ghoul?” Touka asks brightly.
“Yeah, so?” asks the kid in the T-shirt. His accomplices, two gangly girls and a chubby boy, look ashamed.
“Don’t you know you shouldn’t hurt ghouls? They can eat you,” says the taller girl.
Touka looks crushed.
“Please. He only did it because he likes her and wants us to think he doesn’t,” says the smaller girl, pointing at the T-shirt kid.
“What?” he lurches back. “No I don’t! Girls have cooties!”
“They only do if they don’t like you,” Kaneki says, fighting for calm. “Just don’t give girls a reason to dislike you. Whether ghouls or humans.”
“And if you hurt her again,” Touka adds, “she might just get her parents involved, and that would be scary. Remember the dragon? He’s her dad!”
The kids gasp. Touka smirks at Kaneki, who is slightly red in the face, and begins to stride away.
An hour later, the door to their cafe opens. Gray T-Shirt Kid stands there, with a bouquet of dandelions in his grubby hands. He bursts into tears when he sees Pleasure-chan.
“I’m sorry!” He holds out the flowers. “I think you’re really nice and I wanted to be cool, I guess. Can we be friends? Can I have a cool ghoul friend?”
Pleasure-chan claps her hands to her cheeks in delight.
“Oooh,” Uta teases, as Touka and Kaneki hide momentarily behind the counter. They wink at each other.
The ending broke my Mutsurie heart too. T-T
Mutsuki hasn’t fought a ghoul or human vigilante in a full week. It’s more peaceful here.
Aura’s off flirting with Hogi, and Mutsuki is walking outside, enjoying the warm sunshine and quiet.
He’s able to see himself here. Away from the past and the people he used to avoid it. He hopes that someday, he’ll find not just peace in the countryside, but peace with himself.
A long way off, further down the path, a figure emerges. His pace reminds Mutsuki of Urie.
He smiles to himself. Still seeing the Quinx everywhere. He does miss them.
But as he and the figure near each other, Mutsuki sees him.
He sees Urie.
Mutsuki stops in shock, but Urie begins to run towards him.
Has something happened? Mutsuki’s throat dries.
Urie reaches him and throws his arms around Mutsuki. “Tooru.”
“What’s wrong?” Mutsuki demands.
Urie pulls back. There are tears in his eyes. “Me.”
“What do you mean?!”
“I’m – I let you go without telling you.” Urie forces himself to look Mutsuki in his eyes. “I love you. Not just as family.”
Mutsuki goes still.
Urie…
Loves…
Him?
No, surely he can’t – but – Mutsuki feels his heart turning over and over, swirling with the notion that perhaps he too loves Urie.
“You – you mean – ”
Urie presses his lips against Mutsuki, and Mutsuki returns the kiss a hundredfold.
“I know we both have a lot of issues to work out,” Urie says after a few minutes. “But I want to work them out with you by my side.” His fingers intertwine with Mutsuki’s. “Please, say yes.”
Mutsuki speaks before he has the chance to hesitate. Before he has the chance to convince himself he’s unworthy again. Because Urie thinks he is worthy. “Yes.”
Naki stumbles in the door to the apartment he’s going to share with Miza from now on. She’s in his arms, bridal-style, because he insisted. It’s their wedding, after all.
He lays Miza across the bed as his heart pounds. He’s, er, never done this before.
But Miza has. She smiles up at him. “Come here.”
Naki gasps as Miza slowly undresses his white suit, starting with his tie and ending with his boxers.
He pulls out her usual hairstyle, allowing hers to flow freely like a waterfall.
Miza grins cheekily as she guides Naki to unclasp her bra. But, to her surprise, Naki leans forward and bites off the clasp.
“Did you seriously just wreck my bra?”
“I heard it was hard to get off, so I thought ghoul teeth would help,” he says sheepishly.
“Who told you that?”
“Kaneki.” Naki looks proud.
Miza blanches. “That is not who I expected.” Shuu, perhaps, but Kaneki?
He squeals at the sight of her chest, and Miza is once more enraptured by his wonder.
For once, Big Bro doesn’t occupy his thoughts. Now it’s only Miza, as she guides his fingers and body in rhythm.
“This – this feels amazing!” he gasps.
“I know you do,” Miza teases.
“What if we do this forever – ah!” Naki reaches a fever of ecstasy he’s never known existed, and then he feels weak and out of breath.
“Well,” says Miza, enjoying his enjoyment, “now that we’re married, we can.”
God I love Nishikimi, and especially Kimi. They’re the whole reason I got into TG.
“How’s the new business?” Kimi smiles as Nishiki slumps into the couch crammed into their small apartment.
“Touka’s making great coffee. But I suggested using science to enhance it and she – pregnant woman due in a month, let me remind you – threw me across the room.” Nishiki shake his head, but there’s a small grin on his face.
“You were too gentlemanly to fight back, weren’t you?” Kimi laughs.
“Bit of a change from where we started, eh?” Nishiki elbows her.
Kimi snuggles closer. “Hmm, yes.” She closes her eyes briefly. “Not my feelings for you, though.”
“Likewise.” Nishiki kisses her forehead.
“Marry me.”
He chokes. “What?”
Kimi cracks her eyes open. “What are we waiting for? It won’t even be illegal now. We already live together. Why not?”
“You wanna be Mrs. Nishio?” he asks hopefully.
“It’s not even that different from Nishino, silly.” Kimi sticks out her tongue.
“Are you proposing to me?”
“What if I am?”
“I’d say yes.” Nishiki pouts. “Too bad I don’t know if you are.”
“Of course I am!” Kimi glares at him, and he seals the deal with a kiss.
Yessss I wanna read this story. And you’re totally going to keep Rio alive, right? Right? 😛
Kaneki smiles as his daughter yells “Tag! You’re it!” while bonking little Haise on the head.
Little Saiko shrieks and flees from her brother and her cousin.
“How are the peace efforts, Juuzou?” Rin clears her throat. She reaches one hand over to hold Rio’s.
“They’re going. There’s less orphans being produced than there were even a year ago,” he says.
“Good,” Touka says. “Hinami was saying she hadn’t seen you in a bit.”
“We’ll be escorting some orphans there tonight,” Juuzou admits. It’s nice to cooperate with Hinami, with his brother Kaneki’s sister-in-law, to become her friend after all they’ve done.
She’s nice. He’s glad ghouls can be his friend. And family.
Kaneki kisses Touka’s forehead. “I’l get us some more coffee.”
“Yours isn’t as good as hers,” Rin teases.
“Silence, human.” Kaneki smirks. He hasn’t joked about his humanity before. It feels good.
“It’s not,” Rio offers, supporting his wife.
The entire table hurts into laughter, as a few meters away, the twins finally capture their cousin in a hug.
Mercy and Magic 