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Hide's freckles started appearing at the age of 9, Kaneki noticed. The boy spent a lot of time in the sun while Kaneki preferred to stay in the shade, reading a book and looking at his best friend run around.
He remembers Hide grinning bashfully when somebody pointed out his freckles, as if though he found them embarrassing. He also remembered that one time where Hide despised his freckles upon knowing that some kids in middle school made fun of him for that. One day, when he and Hide were hanging out at Hide's house, Hide got some of his mom's makeup ("It says concealer here, so it must be to conceal imperfections," Hide told Kaneki as he read the label on the tube) and smeared it across his cheeks, the bridge of his nose, and around his arms. He knew he had more, but they were scattered all over his body.
He also remembered, quite sadly, when Hide said in a choked up voice, "Kaneki... I don't want to have freckles anymore." Kaneki had enough of Hide trying to remove what made him even more unique and put down his book; he made his way up to where Hide was sitting on the other couch. He put his hands on the blonde's shoulders firmly, which caught Hide off-guard, and said, "Hide, I like your freckles. They are not an imperfection, but shows you're different. In a good way. So please, stop trying to get rid of them."
From that day on, Hide never complained about his freckles. If somebody were to tease him about it, he would simply laugh and say, "Yeah," and did not complain about it later on.
Kaneki had almost forgotten how Hide's freckles looked like, since he was gone for so long. He was resting against the headboard of their shared bed; it was a rainy day outside and Hide had come back from classes exhausted. Hide had his head resting against Kaneki's thigh, and his phone in one hand was choosing what kind of music to play next. Hide settled for a song and put on his orange headphones, "I'm going to nap for a little," he told the ghoul. Kaneki made an affirmative hum and continued to read as the other closed his eyes. A few minutes of silence passed by and the only noise filling the room was Hide's exhales and inhales, and the sound of pages flipping.
Kaneki's eyes wandered to Hide's peaceful expression, and he smiled fondly. His eyes settled on the freckles spread across the other's face, like a constellation of stars. As a kid, he always knew that Hide had freckles elsewhere, such as his back. Recently, Kaneki proved that was true. Not only from his back to his shoulders, but they were also on his thighs and chest, and Kaneki found connecting the marks relaxing. He let his finger lightly trace Hide's cheeks, ever so careful not to wake up the sleeping male (Hide did pull of an all-nighter the previous night to cram for an exam he had the next day). Hide's nose scrunched up but he did not wake up, he simply snuggled into the space between where Kaneki's hip bone was.
Kaneki let out a light chuckle and resumed reading his book until Hide woke up around dinner time, complaining about how it felt like someone was tickling his face when he was sleeping.