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Kaneki lay awake, Hide snoring peacefully next to him. No thanks to the ray of the moon shining into the room, Kaneki was able to clearly make out scars -- marks -- he had left on his lover's neck merely two weeks ago. It was like a reminder that he is a monster; he could hurt this person he holds so dear any time exactly because of their closeness.
Having just recovered, Kaneki was forced to live with Hide upon the latter's insistence, where that very night they had, without words, exchanged a kiss and became lovers. It was thanks to Hide sleeping next to him every night that Kaneki was able to get through the nightmares...
Even now, he is still being so considerate of someone like me.
As he closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep, Kaneki was back on alert with a start as the same vision haunted him. The vision of him taken over by the ghoul side of him, and eating everyone close to him... Including Hide. The worst thing was that he saw himself laughing in the pool of blood. Kaneki felt sick at the thought of eating flesh ever again.
He couldn't hold back a distressed sigh of relief to be awake, and Hide turned in his sleep, his face now staring directly at Kaneki. He was awake.
"...What's wrong?" Hide asked in a husky voice while he rubbed at his eyes.
"Ah, sorry. I woke you up..."
"That doesn't answer my question."
Kaneki smiled, however a troubled expression on his face. Hide followed his line of sight, and brought a hand to the scar on his neck. Then, he sat up abruptly and gave a light slap on Kaneki's forehead while his other hand reached to switch on the table lamp. Kaneki could see an obvious pout on his lover's face.
"Are you worrying about this again? Man, I told you it's fine, didn't I? It's perfectly normal for ghouls to be hungry! I won't break off my relationship with you because of something like this."
Kaneki didn't reply, but simply hung his head with the same troubled expression. Hide always say such things. He always know how to cheer me up. Yet, what can I do for this person...?
"Hmmm? Are you perhaps pondering over how wonderful of a person I am?" Hide chuckled in a teasing tone, peering at Kaneki's face, making the poor boy blush as his face turned to the right.
Still chuckling, Hide placed a warm hand against Kaneki's chin and tilted it such that he had no choice but to look at him in the eye. The one-eyed ghoul; Hide realised for the millionth time. However, rather than being freaked out by this abnormality, he simply brought his face closer to Kaneki's and gave him a kiss right above the ghoul eye.
"You know, I'm actually pretty jealous, Kaneki. Now, you look so cool I have to worry about you being snatched away by other people..."
With arms folded in mocking anger, Hide took a peek at Kaneki who was blushing even deeper now, looking even more troubled than he had before. Hide softly sighed inwardly then wrapped his arms around Kaneki's neck. "Hey, if you kiss my 'love mark', I'll forgive you?"
After a few seconds of eyes darting left and right, Kaneki finally gave a light chomp on Hide's scar, careful not to taste his flesh, but still with enough strength to leave teeth marks.
"See? Like this, isn't it the proof of love? So, don't you ever dare go off on your own ever again and think about nonsensical stuff on your own, get it?"
Kaneki had many things he had yet to tell Hide -- things Hide would've liked to know such as how he managed life in Anteiku, the Aogiri incident et cetera -- but he swallowed those words. He knew Hide was being considerate of his feelings, and he wanted to respect his choice.
When he's ready, he'll ask.
Kaneki hugged Hide back tightly, and Hide gently ruffled his hair. It was a soothing feeling; the cool touch of his hand against his head, but the warmth of the body was incomparable.
"Let's sleep?"
"...Okay."
Hugging to sleep somewhat did the final trick -- Kaneki didn't have nightmares for the first time in six months.