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Kaneki and Touka were on the sofa, shoulder to shoulder, doing their own things. Touka working out a new menu for the cafe and Kaneki as per usual reading, knees tucked in, toes just hanging over the sofa edge.
Touka looks up from the paper when she feels a strain in her eyes and catches Kaneki reading and her breath stuttering because he looks... he looks…
She can’t find a word for it, that describes why she goes all silent and her heart squeezes with a sudden rush of affection. Peaceful, she thinks, but that’s not the right word. It’s more like... he’s in his own world right now, completely taken in by the words. His eyes full of that...light he gets when he reads.
A smile touches involuntary on Touka’s lips. Typical Kaneki.
He probably wouldn’t notice if she got up now, when he usually would be attentive about every movement she did, every touched she placed on him (this thing between them was fairy new and fragile, a new territory for the both of them)
Touka’s heartbeat picks up then, as her mind remembers...last night...the touches they exchanged... and she looks away quickly, back to her paper and starts to work out the menu again but now with a hint of red bloom on her cheeks, her mind occupied by other things. Her free hand (un)subtly clutches on Kaneki’s back which he doesn’t even notice absorbed by the book.
A few minutes...or maybe an hour...passes like that. It’s getting late, Touka feels the exhaustion dipping in as she catches herself mid-yawn, shoulders drooping. She turns to inform Kaneki that they should... When she blinks and laughs. Looks Kaneki already beat it to her.
He was sleeping, head bobbing side to side in what must be a very awkward angle. He’s probably going to be aching a lot when he wakes up, Touka thinks — it didn’t make sense, they were ghouls, weren’t supposed to get that technically (kaneki said many times to her, as this happened before to him) and Touka laughs softly again as she remembers his face, the furrowing eyebrows and his sulky expression that deeped as he complained and when she mentioned that he should stop sleeping on sofas and tables then.
She reaches forward, cups his neck and leans his head to rest on her shoulder, shifting more backwards and into something more comfortable, ready for sleep because she’s too tired to move now, forget moving him too.
She doesn’t go to sleep immediately, spends moments watching the face of Kaneki closely, her palm pressing on his chest and following the up-down movement that up it and lower it... and the small knot that still exists in her chest, knitted with fear and anxiety of the future... eases up… she breathes out and falls sleeps like that.
It’s morning. Kaneki wakes up slowly, with a groan, his eyes squinting against the too-bright sunlight when he feels...something is wrong. Nothing big, just little things his senses pick up that seem...off. Huh? He thinks as instead of his bed...he finds he’s still on the sofa? Something harder and more bumpy than a pillow under his head and...a weight next to him? Sort of over to him too?
And when it clicks, when the memories come trickling back, when he opens his eyes fully and sees… Oh. Something like a warmth bursts and his cheeks flush up, pleasant curling over in tightly that he can’t...
Oh, oh... Kaneki thinks helplessly, vocabulary lost and reaches out, unable to help it, brushing his fingers against Touka’s hair. His heart skips. Faster, as his finger skims over the skin of her ear and his breathing is more visible. It’s… really smooth and the way she looks asleep with bits of her hair tucked in now… it’s… that helplessly feeling is rising again the longer he stares…
Then, his eye catches the corner of her lips. The twitch.
She’s awake.
Kaneki lets go, perhaps too quickly, overcome with embarrassment. Makes a noise as he buries his face with his hand.
When he gets the courage to look back up again. Touka has her eyes opened, and is wearing a large grin. The beginnings of laughter lines around her eyes.
His breath catches, and he almost forgets what he was conflicted over before.
“Ken.” His heartbeat skyrockets. His first name...
His tongue gets tangled, somehow Kaneki manages to find his voice and get out... “Touka-chan?” Quiet, feeble, voice trembling.
Her grin slips into something quieter and softer. Reaching her hand up, “Ken,” She repeats, the tone of her voice answering his unsaid question.
Kaneki meets mid-away for a kiss.