Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 8 ~ Ayako

      Dylan had finished school, a few days later, and returned back to the 'cat's cradle' sweets parlour, as Rio had asked him to. He wasn't sure why he was so quick to jump, or why he chose to stay quiet about what he saw that night. He chose to ignore the fact that she was a ghoul, but that didn't put him any more at ease. Though he was slowly beginning to relax, he always felt on edge around Rio, and a little voice would always whisper and remind him how dangerous and unpredictable she could be. Yet, he chose to take that risk.

      "He's such a weirdo," Dylan scoffed, shovelling more of his vanilla cake into his mouth, eyes rolling in annoyance. Rio snickered, stirring more cream into her coffee. She wasn't at work, but decided to meet with Dylan there anyway. "Seriously,"

     "He can be, sometimes," She gave a half shrug, a smile pulling at her face.

    "Sometimes?" Dylan's voice raised in outrage, a few people around them turning to glare in annoyance. "Tsukiyama is such a creep!"

    "He's not that bad," Rio's face pulled into a full smile, lighting up her usual stern face with amusement. Dylan noted how besotted she seemed over him, and gave an 'are-you-serious' look.

    "You have to be kidding me, he's an actual creep," Dylan shook his head, eyes narrowing in frustration. "He was literally waiting outside my house the other day! He just said it was to 'bid me a good night', but how the hell did he even find my house?!"

     Dylan almost shivered comically at the memory and Rio snorted. It was almost strange how easily Dylan made light of a situation that could so easily have gone wrong, and was undoubtedly concerning. Perhaps his integration with the ghouls had unhinged him to some degree. Perhaps he was simply in denial. Maybe he was just kidding himself. He wasn't sure, but he would much rather push it all from mind than have to face the truth.

     "Perhaps you have yourself an admirer," The corner of Rio's mouth quirked up into a smirk.

    "Does he swing that way?" Dylan gasped dramatically, his fork stabbing into what was left of his cake.

     "Who knows?" Rio winked. Dylan would've been shocked by the wink, but he was too busy trying to feel less nauseous and push away the horrific image which had jumped to the forefront of his imagination.

      "Ah, what's this?" Another sweet voice cooed from somewhere nearby. It was probably another worker in the sweets parlour, the sugar coated drawl fit right in. "Rio has a human friend?"

    Both Dylan's and Rio's eyes shot up to the voice which had dropped to just above a whisper, loud enough for only their ears to hear. Stood just next to their table was indeed a waitress, probably a peer of Rio's. Dark ebony-brown hair with a full fringe, and draped over her shoulders and cut at a uniform length, shiny bown eyes peering out from underneath.

    "Mm," Rio hummed, a teasing smirk on her face when she glanced at Dylan. "I was gonna have this one as a snack, but I changed my mind- Oh, come on, don't give me that look, I'm kidding,"

     A giggle like gently tinkling wind-chimes came from the girl stood at the table, the silver tray clasped in both hands in front of her, a small, closed eye smile on her face. She looked sugary sweet.

    "Are you a human?" The question tumbled from Dylan's lips before he could stop them, and suddenly felt as if his whole face had gone pale and his spirit had left his body. Was there a more conspicuous question he could've asked? If she was, it wouldn't take much to figure out why he'd asked that, he could've just blown Rio's cover, and if he had, he didn't expect his life to last much longer.

    "No," The girl replied surprisingly happily, and Dylan wasn't sure whether he should breath a sigh of relief or hold his breath and hope he doesn't make a wrong move. "I'm flesh and blood, but not human. My name is Ayako, by the way. I'm a ghoul,"

      "Hmph, I don't know how you can even call yourself a ghoul..." Rio muttered, her face suddenly becoming icy, and her eyes rolled away from Ayako, clearly irritated, though Dylan wasn't sure what by, and was rather stunned by the sudden mood change. He knew she was spontaneous but not to the point of being bipolar.

     "Nice to see you, too, Rio," Ayako's soft eyes hardened and narrowed, glaring at her in distaste, before turning on her heels, the flouncy skirts of her uniform puffing out as if a breeze had just blown through the closed doors and whipped them up as she trotted off behind the counter again.

     "What did you mean by that...?" Dylan asked after a moment of silence, eyeing Rio. She sat huffily, slumped in her chair, arms folded tightly over her chest, eyes narrowed and face drawn in what could be compared to a childish pout. Her head rolled on her shoulders and one hand reached up and massaged at the nape of her neck, as if talking to Ayako had put a great strain on her.

     "She was one of the few who survived the initial treatment," Rio said slowly, choosing her words carefully and deliberately, but it did nothing to pacify Dylan's curiosity, only awakening more questions.

     "What do you mean by that...?" Dylan asked, his voice quiet and low as if he didn't want to shatter the calm that seemed to have befallen her, and risk another mood swing. Rio sat blinking her wide, icy eyes for a moment, before they darted up to meet Dylan's.

     "It's not my place to say," Rio said carefully, and Dylan went to protest, but couldn't get his words in before, "I think it's time we got going,"

~