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“Kaneki?” He calls out, waiting for a sign that Kaneki’s still awake. Hearing nothing, he sighs and yanks the sheets off him so he can crawl out of the futon to kneel by Kaneki’s bed. He rests his head on crossed arms on the bed, staring at his sleeping best friend.
Kaneki’s face looks so peaceful, which is a nice change from how increasingly distressed he’s become while awake, and the moonlight makes him look so cold, like he can be sometimes. Which he knows Kaneki doesn’t mean to be, but it comes across that way. He had a hard enough time convincing his best friend that staying over tonight wouldn’t end horribly.
He shifts closer, “you know you can talk to me, right?” He says like he expects an answer. “And I’m not… I wouldn’t…” he trails off, moving a hand to linger over the eye that would now have an eyepatch if Kaneki was awake, and he delicately traces it. Pulling his hand away from the soft skin, he sighs again. “You’re not telling me for my own protection, yeah? Not because of something stupid like you not trus―“
He shakes his head, because no, I’m the stupid one for thinking that. “It’s just―“ I love you even if you’ve become a ghoul? I want to help you? What if you leave me? “... Nevermind,” he pushes himself off Kaneki’s bed, hesitating ― waiting for Kaneki to wake up, or for a hand to grab his, for something―
Kaneki still sleeps, and he crawls back onto the futon, pulling the blankets over his head as he turns away from his best friend.
[Fin]