Kaneki x Touka [Touken] One Shots

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He walked on the streets, hand grabbing his shirt tightly when his torso throbbed and he bit his lower lip to bear with the pain. A delicious coffee scent penetrated the air and he directed his attention to a small cafe in the corner. He hoped that coffee would be able to heal his wounds a little or at least ease the pain. With those train of thoughts, he entered the cafe and was shocked to see the same lady who nursed him a week ago, working as a waitress there.

Both of their eyes widened when they saw each other and Touka quickly guided him to a corner seat before sitting down beside him. "Hey, are you alright? Your stomach..."

The male shifted his chair away from her, purposely putting some distance between them. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for--" He hissed when her hand settled over his stomach and she quickly retracted her hand.

"Don't lie. I'll be done with my shift in an hour. Wait for me here. Don't you dare leave without a word this time." She glared menacingly at him and he nodded with a swallow.

After her work was over, she guided him back to her house and passed him a brown paper bag. He brought it to his nose and sniffed. Human meat. His eyes looked to her, as if asking how she got this. "I know how hard it is to get food in this ward and you don't seem like you're from this ward either. So I borrowed some from my co-worker. He's a ghoul too. Don't worry, it isn't poisoned."

Despite her last sentence, he still opened the package warily and inspected the meat before taking a bite. She watched him chew slowly, swallow and smiled when he started to eat more of it. Within seconds, he was finished with the package and she handed him another one.

His kakugan was out again and she stared curiously at them. He was slightly disturbed by her gaze and asked, "What?"

"It's my first time seeing a ghoul's eyes up close."

"..And?"

"They're pretty."

He froze at her comment. Did she just compliment him? No one ever compliments a ghoul's eyes. They all say it's scary. This is the first time he's hearing a human say that.

"What?"

"I'm not lying. Hey, can I see your Kagune? I didn't manage to see it fully the other night." She asked.

"No."

She frowned. "Is this how you repay someone who saved your life and gave you food?"

Kaneki dragged a hand down his face with a sigh. He brought out his kagune as asked, and had 4 tentacles in the air. Her eyes dazzled at the sight of red scaly tentacles and she reached out to touch one. "Why isn't it sharp? You pointed a sharp one at me that time."

He answered her by sharpening one tentacle and making it soften. "We ghouls can control it."

She stared in awe and then looked at him. "So beautiful..."

His breath hitched, and he teared up a little since no one has ever called him that. Beautiful? How is he beautiful? All he's ever done his whole life was kill people and ghouls with these. They're ugly, sinful, disgusting. He's anything but beautiful.

All his life he was overcome with hatred because his human mother abandoned him when she realized that his father was a ghoul and she gave birth to a full ghoul too. From then on, he hated and couldn't trust humans. But why—when she cupped his face and pressed a kiss to the side of his mouth with a smile—did it make his heart beat so fast?

"You had a very lonely expression in your eyes earlier. I couldn't help it. Sorry." Touka said.

Though he swore to never trust humans again, he moved closer and enveloped her in his arms. Just once, he wanted to know how a human's warmth felt like. She was warm, unlike a ghoul's normal body temperature of 30 degrees. Pressing his nose into her hair, she smelt like coffee and flowers.