Chapter Text
“Why are you all wet?”
The question startles him and Kaneki almost drops the still open bag in his trembling hands. He flinches and keeps his back to the other boy, who’s probably still staring intently at his tense shoulders, his gaze piercing and inquisitive.
Kaneki hurries to collect the remaining books still scattered across the grass, soaked, giving up trying to squeeze out all the water that he knows won’t come out of them. They’re ruined.
“I fell over,” he explains, one hand flying to his chin, while the other hurries to close his bag with a click; he can’t help but notice how those brown orbs follow his gesture, and he tries his best to shrug nonchalantly as he avoids Nagachika-kun’s eyes altogether, instead directing his gaze to the river as if it were enough of an explanation.
Please, please don’t ask any more questions.
The message seems to pass across because the boy just hums in reply. He doesn’t seem convinced, but Kaneki can live with it as long as Nagachika-kun refrains from prying.
“Well, I have to go now,” Kaneki then says as a way to end the conversation. He suddenly feels really tired. How long till he can go home? He rubs his eyes and begins to walk off, not bothering to look behind his shoulder if the boy’s still there. “Need to stop by the library to buy new books,” he whispers to himself as an afterthought.
“Wait,” Nagachika says, trotting behind him. “Aren’t you cold? You really are soaked to the bone! You’ll get a cold, man!”
Kaneki looks pointedly at his feet, as he keeps walking, the boy in tow as a faithful dog alongside his master. “I can manage till I get home.”
“Do you live nearby?” Nagachika-kun asks, and Kaneki finally raises his eyes to properly look at him. He’s surprised when he finds genuine concern in those honest brown eyes. He looks away sharply, refusing to reply. No, he doesn’t live nearby, not that the boy needs to know.
“I’ll be fine,” he reassures again, speeding up his step. Nagachika catches up again. “Don’t you have anywhere else to be?” Kaneki hesitantly asks, knowing he’s being rude now. His cheeks flare fiery pink. What’s with this boy and his sudden interest in his business?
Nagachika-kun replies with a toothy grin. “Practice’s already over,” he says, glancing at the sports bag Kaneki now notices on his broad back. That’s right, he’s a part of the volleyball club. Kaneki averts his eyes again. He shouldn’t be fraternizing with a volleyball player, Kaneki thinks. He’s popular. Kaneki doesn’t want to taint his classmate’s good name if someone were to see them together. Besides, it’s not like he can let Nagachika-kun walk him home. How could he explain that he lives…
“I know that you’re a marmaid -errr- I guess more like a marman, sorry, with your fishy scales and all that cool stuff, but don’t you get cold when you’re up here all wet like that?” Nagachika says as if he’s talking about the weather, and Kaneki freezes. He stops walking, his mind short-circuiting on him. He gapes, at a loss for words.
Did Nagachika just…?
How could he…?
Since when?
Had Kaneki let his act slip? Did anyone else know? Were they going to kick him out from school for good now? Oh, he bet that some of his classmates would be thrilled to know the news. Would they call him names, to add to the bullying, now that they knew he was a… he was a… How long were they going to let him attend class?
“Whoa, whoa, man, calm down. Deep breaths. In and then out. In an then out,” Nagachika is on him in a minute. Kaneki looks at him, and lets the calm, soothing aura of the other boy calm his nerves, his eyes never once leaving the worried brown of Nagachika’s own as the boy repeats his mantra, his voice calm and steady, grounding.
Finally, Kaneki closes his eyes. He feels drained. The hand on his shoulder squeezes reassuringly, and Kaneki distantly thinks that he hadn’t noticed the other boy getting so close. He’s too exhausted to really care.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t know it was a secret,” he awkwardly apologizes. Kaneki hesitantly raises his head to look at him, scanning his face for a lie. Nagachika is scratching his cheek in a nervous manner. Despite himself, Kaneki can’t find one.
“Well, if you weren’t cold then, you certainly are now,” Nagachika-kun suddenly notes. “You’re trembling.”
Kaneki recoils. “I-I should get home,” he babbles lamely.
“No way I’m going to let you go when you’re this shaken up. Besides, you’re still dripping wet,” Nagachika says, voice unexpectedly stern, the hand still on his shoulder tensing for a second. He reaches for his sport bag with his free hand. “Hang on,” he adds seconds later. “I should have exactly what you need, man.” Kaneki looks at him in bewilderment as he fishes in his bag, searching for something, his face lighting up when he finds the needed object. “Here,” he chirps, offering him a clean towel.
Kaneki just stares at his hand as if it had claws and was ready to attack him.
“Why?”
“Uhm?”
“Why are you helping me?”
Nagachika looks at him as if he doesn’t understand the question. “Because I don’t want you to catch a cold…?” He replies, his confusion making it sound like a question.
“No, I mean. Why aren’t you freaked out? Why are you helping me, Nagachika-kun?”
Nagachika just blinks. Then a smile slowly stretches on his lips.
“You can call me Hide,” he says, and Kaneki is about to protest when the other boy adds with a cheeky grin. “And I suppose I’m helping you because you’re my friend from now on. Don’t bother arguing with it. I already decided for you when I noticed you all alone and friendless, and I can tell that you’re dying to have a friend to complain about those soaked books. So now I’m that friend, Kaneki. And friends help each other out.” He finishes his speech with another large grin, satisfied by his logics, and throws the towel on Kaneki’s head.
Kaneki is glad for the much needed shield; his face is burning. He said the word as though it was so easy… As though Kaneki wasn’t a merman in disguise and a victim of bullying on top of that… Why would a perfectly normal guy like him want to associate with him? He isn’t that cool to begin with…
He busies himself by toweling off his hair, trying to dispel the thoughts. He can’t let this happen. He can’t do this to Hid- to Nagachika-kun. Not even if he desperately wants to be his friend. Kaneki bites his lip, already turning the words in his head, rehearsing them, when a sudden weight on his shoulders promptly shuts him up. He suddenly feels really warm.
He removes the towel from his eyes to glance into an extremely pleased Hide, who’s looking at him as though he’d just won the lottery. His volleyball jacket is no longer resting on Hide’s shoulders, but is instead placed more comfortably on Kaneki’s, warming him up from his still soaked clothes.
“I told you it was no use arguing it, Kaneki,” he chants, barely managing to say the words through that huge grin of his. Kaneki’s own lips pull a bit upwards at the sight, and he feels something funny and warm in his chest. “You’re my friend now, whether you want it or not.”
Avoiding his gaze, Kaneki thinks that it’s settled, then. It’s not like anything he’s going to say will dissuade Hide from his intentions. Something squeezes in his chest and Kaneki doesn’t know how to feel about it. Happy? Scared? Confused? Yeah, that must be it. This is really sudden, ok? But maybe… Maybe it could work out. He nods, bashful, trying to get to terms with the foreign idea.
“Besides, who else gets to have a mermai– Err, a Merman as a friend? I’m the luckiest guy on Earth! You need to tell me more about it, Kaneki!”
Kaneki blushes again, this time from embarrassment at his friend’s antics. “D-Don’t shout it like that! People might hear you!”
“So what, Kaneki?” he asks, a lilt to his name, as if tasting the sound of it on his tongue. Something flutters in Kaneki’s chest again. “That’s so cool! You shouldn’t hide it! I want to know everything about it! Will you show me your tail? Eh? Does it change colour when it catches the sunlight? Are you the only merman in our school? How many others are there? Eh Ka-ne-kiiiii?”
Kaneki feels overwhelmed by the sudden rush of questions, but strangely Hide’s enthusiasm is making something warm crawl his way up his chest. This is the most comfortable he’s been with himself and his nature for a long while, and it feels great to be able to just be himself, no lies, no omission, no hiding. He doesn’t know how Hide found out, nor does he care anymore. Knowing that Hide knows and doesn’t judge him any less than his human friends makes something close to happiness swell in Kaneki’s chest.
Yeah, he thinks later that day, walking lazily with Hide in tow. This is something completely new to Kaneki. Never in his 10 years on the surface he’s experienced such a wholehearted acceptance. People always targeted him because he was always by himself, reading his books, trying to absorb as much human knowledge as he could. Kids made fun of his passions, people kept away from the weird boy who always looked at the sea but always shied from it, afraid of getting wet.
Kaneki had lived his human life alone, and had thought he was thoroughly happy with it until Hide came along out of nowhere and showed him something completely unexpected, and suddenly Kaneki craves for more.
It’s weird. It’s unheard of. But Kaneki is willing to try.
If a smile from Hide could build bridges across cultures and species, then this friendship of theirs could really work out.
And he has to thank his bullies and his soaked clothes for it. Fate sometimes had a roundabout way to make things work, he muses with a smile and an heartfelt “see you tomorrow” as he parts way with Hide for the day.
It already feels like a promise.