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Naki stretches the last syllable of his name.
Well, the name Naki calls him at least.
He stretches it especially when he's pouting over some imaginary slight he's suffered.
In time, for some reason, he's started to come to Shuu whenever he feels like complaining, or when other members of Goat are upset with him, or when Kaneki doesn't have time to teach him whatever it is he wants to learn. Shuu's found that the inner workings of Naki's mind are fascinating—he's put to use all the developmental and cognitive theories he studied in University—and the way he learns, much faster than expected, is captivating. So Shuu indulges him and greets him with a smile and listens to his complaints. Sometimes they're endlessly entertaining too.
This time the reason for his seeking out Shuu is Miza, it seems.
“Miza got mad at me, I thought she was gonna teach me how kids are made.”
Shuu laughs. Sometimes he really is incredibly amusing.
“Of course she'd get mad, Monsieur.”
“I think she had trouble explainin' it with words, or sumthin'.”
Bet that wasn't it, really.
“So,” Naki continues, “was thinkin' maybe the King could teach me, show me with his body, cos he knows everythin'.”
It's a fleeting image, Kaneki showing Naki how to make kids—anything—with his—his—body, and Shuu suppresses it with his characteristic speed, but that instant is enough.
“Hold it right there,” he points at Naki—like a character out of a Western, some kind of Clint Eastwood with better sense of style and much, much better hair—“I'll teach you instead.”
The thing with Naki isn't just that he's always eager to learn, or that he shows his own cards willingly, but that he appreciates every small gesture as if they're all the grandest thing that's ever happened to him. His enthusiasm is contagious, even. Shuu's not surprised the White Suits, who seem to be less easily swayed, follow him with such loyalty. He's seen how much Naki cares about those he treasures firsthand so he understands.
Hopefulness shines in his eyes for a second before Shuu starts explaining what they need.
As Shuu sees it there are various ways in which this can pan out.
Either he asks Naki to get the clay and help him make the shape and he risks Naki losing focus on the matter at hand and being distracted by this new game or he does it himself and risks Naki losing focus and wandering off somewhere else.
It isn't like him to let down one who wishes so bad to learn—and something that maybe he already should know but he can't even fathom what kind of rearing Naki had to endure growing up—and he's aware that without Matsumae, and his Papa, and Hori, and even—particularly—Kaneki, by his side, he never would've learned so many things, though late, that he couldn't—shouldn't—do without now.
“Uh, Yamada?”
Shuu notices he's been silent for far too long, probably, so he explains.
“I just need to get some clay and make balls out of it.”
“Oh, okay.” Naki looks confused but is not deterred.
The other variables come in different shapes, literally.
He thinks he's adept enough to create a model of the inside of a human (or ghoul) capable of bearing children, in relief, with its organs and pathways and cavities and vessels, and the ovaries and the eggs and the sperm. He's had enough field work to be able to accurately represent the inside of a human (or ghoul). But then would Naki really get that. Or would it further complicate his own understanding of what it entails—not just the, uh, physiological part, but the part Miza was probably so upset about. Is he after the real answer or could Shuu get away with telling him the same thing Mirumo told him as a child (“fathers plant a seed and then a baby sprouts in mothers' tummy and after nine months it's born, small and crying”) despite the fact that he ran the risk of Naki, like Shuu had done at his tender young age, thinking mommies had to eat a flower pot for babies to be born.
Another one he doesn't want to really consider, lest it complicates Naki's understanding further, is, well, showing Naki himself. And then he'd take the role of the childbearer, and for that he'd need the, uh, balls of clay to function as breasts—he'd like small breasts, not too noticeable, just enough that he'd be able to disguise them and wear a dashing suit, but also fill out a tight dress really nicely, he'd like them like that—he shouldn't get distracted. This alternative poses another dilemma, of course, on the front of Naki not understanding, really, the mechanics of what's supposed to happen since Shuu can't make himself other stuff he'd need to realistically play the role of child bearer and Naki would either come out of the experience with wildly incorrect knowledge or he'd just go to Kaneki anyway and then Kaneki would give Shuu that funny look that says he doesn't understand what goes through Shuu's head and never wishes to do so but respects the fact that Shuu's learned enough not to share his being, uh, like that, with him. It's a nostalgic look sure but Shuu isn't precisely eager to repeat that weird limbo—enjoyable as it was—in which he had no idea what he felt towards Kaneki—kept repeating it was just hunger—and Kaneki didn't trust or even enjoy his company. Things have changed so much he doesn't want to be reminded.
The last option and probably the safest one is to make replicas of the most immediate and external organs needed for the conception of a child. It's embarrassing and awkward but he's committed to education. And committed to not having Naki bother Kaneki over this.
Naki 's crouching on the floor, scratching his head, when Shuu's done.
“Didn't think it'd take that long, Yamada.”
“Do you have somewhere else to be, Monsieur.”
“Don't think so, nah. Whassat?"
He eyes the clay shapes in Shuu's hands and though he knows he should be blushing or at least embarrassed Shuu chooses a clinical approach.
“It's a penis.”
“Whassat?”
“Monsieur, please. You know what it is!” he holds it up for Naki to see.
“Oh, that thing. Yeah, I know, come on, course I know.”
“And this?” he held out the other object.
Naki furrows his brow, he'd sat down on the floor, legs crossed. He crosses his arms now.
“Eh, a—nah, dunno.”
No surprise there.
“Some people have these between their legs” he holds up the clay, uh, penis. “Some people have these,” he holds up the vagina.
“Really? That looks kinda fucked up.”
“No, it doesn't,” Shuu isn't sure if that was a comment on his sculptural abilities but either way.
“S'weird.”
“So is this,” Shuu says, holding up the clay penis. “But that's not the point.”
“What's this gotta do with kids, then?”
Shuu feels like a teacher, standing while Naki sits, demonstrating this most basic of acts with clay models.
“You know something comes out of this, right? I don't mean piss.”
“Uh, yeah. I know that.”
“When a person who has this part, and a person who has this part, want to make a kid, they do this—” Shuu demonstrates by inserting one into the other, commending himself for the mastery of his sculptures, the smooth way they fit together. “And when the person with this finishes, they—”
“Finishes what?”
Shuu makes a face. “Make that thing, sperm, come out.”
“Oh.”
“Sperm has millions of little mini spermatozoids and they, well, come out. Inside the other person there's an ovary, that has this thing, like an egg—” Naki looks confused but not completely lost so Shuu powers through. “that fuses with one of those, and then it turns into a baby.” At this Shuu has the notion of showing Naki Look Who's Talking, since the opening credits sequence to that movie, which he watched as a child, clarified Mirumo's explanations for him back then.
“How'd they get to do that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Y'know, like, I got one of those but I don't go like stickin'—”
“With someone you love! You kiss and, you hold them, you bring them flowers, you hold their hands, you try and make them happy, un peu comme ça.”
“So's, like, what people do after flirtin'?”
Shuu blinks twice.
“Flirting?”
“Yeah, y'know, like when ya go out and tell girls they're pretty and stuff. Hooguro told me about it, he likes flirtin' with human girls.”
“He does?”
“Yep.”
“I see,” some ghouls are like that—human fever—he wouldn't have pegged Hooguro for one of them though.
“S'like that?”
“Something like it.”
“I get it, I think. Big bro kinda told me about some stuff like that, I guess. He and Nico tole me sum stuff.”
“About?”
“Love, I guess.”
“I see.”
“But I think ya know more about it.”
“Ah. I wonder.”
“Yeah, I think ya do! Thanks fer teachin' me, Yamada. Wasn't that hard ta say with words, Iunno why Miza couldn' do it.”
“Who knows?” Shuu shrugs. He'd pity Miza if he had it in him.
Shuu turns his back on him, to the table, and starts kneading the clay out of shape.
Naki speaks up suddenly after a moment's silence.
“Must be nice.”
“What must?” Shuu asks, without turning.
“Lovin' someone, y'know, tryina make 'em happy.”
“Uh huh, certainly.”
“And bringin' em flowers. Oh! With meanin's! Mus be real nice.”
Shuu turns, once he's done, then leans back against the table, one arm crossed over his chest, the other bent at the elbow, his hand opened. “Certainement, Monsieur.”
“Y'ever loved someone, Yamada?”
“That's a secret, Monsieur,” he winks. Winks away the memories too. One day they won't hurt, he knows, he needs but a respite now, he needs time.
“M'sure ya can make that person real happy. Like when ya showed me yer blog 'fter helpin' me with mine. Yer real good at that stuff.”
“That stuff?”
“Makin' people happy and stuff. Hooguro and Shousei think so too, that yer real good at it.”
“Merci, Monsieur. You're not half bad yourself.”
“Course,” Naki smiles up at him, “I ain't half, I'm full, yeah, whole.”
Shuu smiles back something almost tender.
“I know.”