Chapter Text
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A long sigh huffs out of Hide. He knows he should stop going back to the house in the clearing, knows it isn’t exactly healthy but… he sits again at the edge of the forest, beside the ivy which he and Kaneki had planted. Through his melancholy Hide feels pride as he looks at how it now reaches high up along the trunk of the tree.
“At least I’m not coming back here every day any more,” Hide says to the ivy in Ancient Japanese, “do I get a bonus for that?”
Hide feels the gentle reproach coming off of the rustling ivy.
“Yeah, yeah that’s fair.”
A few weeks have passed since Kaneki left for Tokyo and yet the house still sits vacant. When Hide can’t resist walking up close to the garden he sees that weeds are beginning to grow into the garden. He supposes he should move them, or ask them to grow elsewhere; even for a plant spirit weeds are weeds when they’re in a garden.
But each time he can’t bring himself to go into the garden. Can’t bring himself to be where so much of the bonding between him and Kaneki happened. To where they fell in love.
He takes a deep breath. Centreing himself back to the present day and then stands, forcing himself to turn from the clearing and head back to his own home.
Months pass, through sheer force of will Hide returns to the house less and less; not that he thinks of Kaneki any less, the thoughts are still there, just as omnipresent as they ever were.
One afternoon, in a moment of weakness, of sadness, Hide visits the house again. As he steps out from under the colour-changing leaves of the forest he immediately notices a change in the house. There is life in it again.
The windows are open, even the back door is propped open. At first Hide’s heart soars, hope rushing through him at the mere prospect of seeing Kaneki again but then he remembers that even if Kaneki is going to return it’s not going to be until summer.
And so his heart crashes down.
He steps back into the trees to hide himself, in case anyone looks out. He has quite had his fill of meeting random humans.
Something in him makes him want to check though, something makes him circle around the perimeter of the clearing so that he can see what car is parked out front. What he sees makes him audibly gasp.
It’s Kaneki’s.
Not that Hide knows anything about cars but it looks exactly the same. He steps out from under the trees. Still hesitating. Still not believing.
But then there he is. Walking out of the house and towards the car. Hide breaks into a run, all hesitation gone.
Hide tackles into Kaneki’s side, arms wrapping around his neck tightly. Kaneki yelps in alarm, “Hide?!”
Hide doesn’t give him a chance to say anything more, shoving his lips against Kaneki’s in a firm kiss. Kaneki makes another squeak of surprise but soon pushes back into Hide’s embrace, his arms coming up to wrap around Hide’s waist. They break apart, resting their foreheads’ together, silent for the moment. Enjoying being in each other’s presence again.
“What on earth are you doing here?” Hide asks, lowering his head to push and kiss against Kaneki’s neck.
“Uhhh,” Kaneki seems to be having trouble concentrating. Hide kisses more firmly just to feel the tremble which goes through Kaneki’s body. But then relents, and just relaxes with this head on Kaneki’s shoulder, hair in Kaneki’s face. Kaneki lifts a hand to Hide’s hair, “Come inside and I’ll explain?”
Hide raises his head and nods firmly, taking Kaneki’s hand. He had let Kaneki disappear once, he wasn’t about to do it again.
Together they make their way into the house, Hide looks around curiously at the many moving boxes as Kaneki leads the way into the kitchen.
“Sorry don’t mind the mess,” Kaneki says, “I haven’t had much chance to unpack yet.”
Hide stares at Kaneki. Not daring to hope. Kaneki blushes under the scrutiny and turns away to busy himself with making coffee. With his back still turned Kaneki says, “Your cape, it’s different.”
“Ah,” Hide pulls it around himself and Kaneki turns around so he can see it better. During the summer the cape had been made up of a bright mix of many shades of green but now along with the green is a mix of yellows, oranges, and reds.
“It does that in the fall,” Hide explains, “like the leaves on the trees. It has enough of my energy that it could stay green but I think it likes to match the forest to be honest.”
“It’s gorgeous,” Kaneki says softly.
Hide blushes, face now more closely matching his cape.
Kaneki finishes making the coffee and brings it to the table, where they both sit nervously. “So,” Hide begins, “gonna explain what you and a whole bunch of moving boxes are doing here?”
Kaneki shifts in his seat. Hands twitching around his mug. “I bought this house. I got rid of my apartment in Tokyo and bought this house.” Hide’s mouth falls open. Kaneki still doesn’t meet Hide’s eyes. “My lease was up anyways, and I had a bunch of money saved from my last book’s sales. The proprietor said that not many people rented it anyways so she was happy to sell it to me.”
Kaneki finally looks up to Hide. Who is still staring at Kaneki, mouth slightly agape.
“Why?” Hide asks.
“What- what do you mean why?” a look of panic crosses Kaneki’s face.
“I mean what about Tokyo. Isn’t that your home?”
“No. I mean yeah I guess so and I will have to go back there sometimes but I dunno… I got back there and it just felt wrong. I immediately missed here and missed the woods and the garden. Tokyo isn’t exactly green.”
Kaneki pauses to take a long sip of coffee, “I thought, ‘well it’s just cause you’re not used to it now’, but the feeling never went away. This feeling of wrong. So I started making plans to see if I could come back.” He smiles at Hide, “Turns out I could.”
“That’s-” Hide doesn’t know what to say, “I’m so glad you did.”
“Plus,” a blush starts mounting on Kaneki’s cheeks, “I missed you every second I was gone.”
A mirroring blush forms on Hide’s face, along with a huge grin. “I missed you so much too,” Hide feels like he might cry of joy.
Instead he stands just enough to lean forward and kiss Kaneki on the lips, where he can taste the coffee Kaneki loves so much and Hide thinks about how although it is such a bitter taste, on Kaneki’s lips it somehow becomes sweet.
He breaks away, “Let’s get you moved in.”
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