#alloace!kaneki

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

(Based on my old idea of matching their ace cards to the respective acespec identities)

[kyanitedragon]

Biromantic Asexual Kaneki / Haise (Tokyo Ghoul)

[ID: One anime screenshot and various manga panels from Tokyo Ghoul with screenshots of tumblr posts edited onto them. Each tumblr post has a light blue border around it, except for the last one which is instead violet. All the images feature either Kaneki Ken, a young adult man with white hair or his other identity as Sasaki Haise, who has white hair with black roots.

Image 1: Haise dressed for his promotion. He’s wearing a formal CCG uniform and his hair is nicely slicked back. The tumblr screenshot is from @/equus-swift, and reads: “I’m what the kids call... Ace-thetically pleasing.”

Image 2: A zoomed-in screenshot from the anime. Haise is sitting on the couch, reading a book. His shirt is purple with black accents. On the front of the shirt, reads “Hi” in pink letters, with the dot of the “i” taking the form on a star. The tumblr screenshot is from @/DemisexualSafeSpace, and reads: “When you’re so ace you dress in ace colors without realizing it.”

Image 3: Kaneki is standing facing the camera. His right hand is held upright, showing him cracking his finger, and his kagune is activated behind him. He looks tense and ready to fight. The tumblr screenshot is from @/GrayWardentAbris, and reads: “The only lust I have is bloodlust.”

Image 4: Two manga panels edited to be side by side. On the left, Kaneki is sitting at a picnic table across from Tsukiyama. On the left, Kaneki is laying on the floor shirtless, sitting up. Straddling him, is Touka, who is also shirtless. The tumblr screenshot is from @/Five-FlatsBlogIFollowFrom, and reads: “As a biromantic asexual, I’m sex indifferent and sex indifferent.” The first phrase “sex indifferent” is bolded, and the second italicized.

Image 5: Kaneki and Touka sitting side by side. Kaneki is looking blankly off into space, and Touka is smirking slightly. The tumblr screenshot is from an anon submission to @/ FuckYeahAsexual, and reads: “My biromantic asexual boyfriend is the best person on Earth, but I guess you could say I have a bi-ace (bias).” END ID.]

[kyanitedragon]

Arospec Lesbian Kira Nerys & Aroace Odo (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Lithromantic Bisexual Stan & Aroace Ford (Gravity Falls)

Aroace Ruby & Alloaro Yang (RWBY)

Gay Aro Yuu, Gay Ace Mika, and Quoiromantic Alloaro Lesbian Shinoa (Seraph of the End)

Greyromantic Bisexual Deku & Lithromantic Asexual Bakugo (My Hero Academia)

Non-SAM Aro Tsuyu and Non-SAM Ace Shinsou (My Hero Academia)

Bi Alloace Kaneki, Bi Alloaro Touka, and Lithromantic Pansexual Hide (Tokyo Ghoul)

Greyromantic Eto & Greysexual Hinami

Aromantic Greysexual Amon & Demiromantic Asexual Akira (Tokyo Ghoul)

Name your arospec and acespec duo hcs

I'll start: Hawks (aroallo) and Mirko (asexual) [bnha] & Kashima (acespec) and Hori (arospec) [gekkan shojo nozaki kun]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

Fluctuates

[ID: A Tokyo Ghoul manga 3-part panel, showing Hide and Kaneki standing in front of a board with grades posted. Hide stresses over finding his name, before Kaneki finds it and points it out, and Hide yells out a cheer. End ID]

Hide and Kaneki further questioning their sexualities

Featuring: Aroflux Allosexual Hide & Alloromantic Aceflux Kaneki Word Count: 1800

[ID: a long arrow pointing right, serving as a text break. It has repeating bands of the aroflux aceflux flag on the stick. The arrow has a grey point, brown stick, and off-green tail fletching. Credit to K.A. Cook @/aroworlds. End ID]

“Yosuke is so hot! I wanna ask him out!” Hide whispered.

Kaneki chuckled. “He sure is attractive.”

Now that Hide and Kaneki were out to each other, Hide gossiped about people of all genders he found attractive, and always wanted Kaneki’s opinion on them.

Yosuke, they both agreed, was perfect. He was nice and thoughtful. He was a cute dork, but he was also insanely hot. Kaneki and Hide’s hearts were both fluttering. They were both in love with this man. They wanted him to know they existed, to know that they wanted him, and for him to want them back. They wanted to embrace him, and kiss him, maybe make out. They wanted some things that went a little farther, too. The point was, they had fallen hard for this man.

---

Kaneki turned the corner, only to bump into something. No. Someone.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

“Uh.” Kaneki stammered, looking up into Yosuke’s beautiful eyes as the man held Kaneki’s shoulders to steady him.

Kaneki’s heart still fluttered. He would love for Yosuke to bend down and kiss him, or squeeze his shoulder affectionately, or give him a comforting hug.

But anything sexual with the man suddenly felt wrong.

Why would Kaneki want to have sex with a stranger? Why did he want that yesterday? Was he just really horny? Kaneki didn’t know what his sexuality was doing.

Kaneki thought back to when he had sexual feelings for Yosuke. Kaneki had felt this way for other people before, too. At least, he thought he did. It was difficult to remember clearly now how he used to feel, as his current desire dropped down to nothing.

---

That’s it! Hide thought as he laid back in bed. I’ll ask him out tomorrow!

A fellow club member of Hide’s was friends with Yosuke, and so in order to help Hide win his heart, he invited Hide into their friend group.

Hide and Yosuke both laughed at his friend’s jokes, and Hide discreetly glanced at the man.

Hide still thought he was attractive and hot, but romance? No thanks. Hide shivered at the thought of a stranger embracing him or whispering sweet nothings into his ear. They hardly knew each other. Why would they love each other that way?

But you wanted all that yesterday, didn’t you? Hide thought, and his brows furrowed.

He did. He did want to be in a romantic relationship with him yesterday. And he had for other people in his past too. But not currently. His crushes on people never seemed to last. They would come and go. Hide had always blown it off, since for the longest time he hadn’t felt ready to date anyway. He had done his best to simply ignore those pesky romantic feelings, and it was usually quite easy for him.

---

“Alright, I gotta ask.” Hide said during lunch one day.

“Okay. What is it?” Kaneki asked.

“When you love someone, do you love them everyday?”

“Well, not forever. Eventually your crush will fade away. But, yeah. Whenever I have a crush, I’m in love with them every day and I can’t stop myself from thinking about them.”

“Really? That’s not an exaggeration?”

“Maybe a little, but not a lot. Why? You don’t?”

Hide shook his head. “No. It’s there one day, and gone the next. Sometimes it stays for weeks, and then disappears. Sometimes it disappears for weeks, sometimes days before it comes back. Sometimes it even changes between hours!”

Kaneki’s eyes widened. “That sounds like my sexuality!”

“I thought you just said yours stayed?”

“My crushes do, but not my— what’s it called— the sexual part of a crush.”

“The sexual part fluctuates?”

“Fluctuates! That’s exactly it!”

“Wait.” Hide pointed at Kaneki. “Sexual.” He pointed at himself. “Romantic.” He glanced back up at Kaneki. “Maybe we’re aspec!”

“Aspec?” Kaneki asked.

“Asexual and Aromantic! I’ve heard they’re both spectrums!”

“Asexual...” Kaneki repeated in a whisper. “Aromantic...”

“Let’s go to my queer club! I know an asexual there! We can ask them! Okay? Please?”

“Sure. I’m curious now.”

“Yay!”

Hide grabbed Kaneki’s hand and ran off.

---

“Alright, Kaneki, this is Haru, they’re X-gender and Asexual.”

“Yo.” Haru waved their hand in greeting.

“Uh, hi.” Kaneki waved back awkwardly. He wasn’t too good at being social.

“We wanted to know about the a-spectrums.” Hide said.

“Alright, like what?”

“Can you start with definitions?” Kaneki asked.

“Sure!” Haru smiled. “Asexual means little to no sexual attraction. We don’t look at people and think, “I wanna tap that!” for example. Or if we do, it’s conditional or rare. Oh! This is our flag.” Haru tapped a pin on their shirt with black, grey, white, and purple stripes.

“People really think that regularly?” Kaneki asked.

“I’m asexual, so you’re asking the wrong person.” Haru chuckled.

“I’m not asexual,” Hide began, “and yeah, I do.”

“Ready for aromantics? Or do you have any questions about asexuality?”

“Not yet. You can continue.”

Haru nodded. “Aromantic means little to no romantic attraction. They don’t get crushes on people — the typical butterflies and cutesy daydreams and romantic infatuation. Or if they do, it’s again, conditional or rare.” Haru walked over to one of the tables, and stuck their hand in a bowl. Hide and Kaneki heard metal clinking as Haru searched for something, and when they returned, they were holding a pin with dark green, light green, white, grey, and black stripes. “And this is the aromantic flag.”

“There’s people that don’t get crushes?” Kaneki asked.

Haru nodded. “Yup. People can be aromantic, or asexual, or both. As for me, I’m asexual but not aromantic. And there’s also aromantics who aren’t asexual. We don’t have any aros here in our club, but I know plenty through the internet. I’m not an expert on aromanticism, though.” Haru looked at Hide. “You’re the one questioning being aro, right?”

“That’s right.”

Haru handed Hide the aromantic pin, and Hide grinned as he took it.

Haru then smiled at Kaneki, and went to fetch him an ace pin.

“But I’m not sure if I’m asexual!” Kaneki floundered as Haru returned and held out the pin for him.

Haru shrugged. “You’re allowed to question. You’re allowed to test it out. If you don’t want it or turn out to not be ace, you can just give it back.”

“But—”

“Just hold it while we’re here talking, okay?” Hide asked, hooking his arm around Kaneki, and with his other hand holding out his aro pin to show Kaneki.

“Alright...”

“So what did you two want to know?”

“The spectrum. There’s labels for all the conditional attraction identities, right?”

“You’re free to identify as aromantic and asexual no matter where you fall on the spectrums, but yes, there’s more labels. Demi- and Grey- are the most common, but there’s plenty more.”

“What are those again?”

“Demi is feeling attraction only after a bond is formed. Grey is rare or conditional attraction, such as people who’ve only ever felt attraction once or twice. Grey is also sometimes used as an umbrella term for anyone in the grey area of the spectrum.”

“So I guess we could both be grey. Me aro, and you ace.”

“If I’m asexual.” Kaneki added.

“Does there happen to be a term where attraction comes and goes?” Hide asked Haru.

“Quite a few. In what sense? Demi is where it comes after a bond. Fray and Lith are where it fades. Aroflux and Aceflux are where it fluctuates.”

“Fluctuates!” Hide cried out. “That! That one!”

“Aroflux, then?” Haru asked.

“And Aceflux?” Hide looked at Kaneki to see what he thought.

“Is there a more descriptive definition for it?” Kaneki asked.

Haru hummed in thought. “I’m not aceflux, but from what I’ve heard... Sexual attraction that fluctuates. Some people are allosexual some days and acespec others. Or some people fluctuate between different ace identities.”

“That’s really an identity?” Kaneki asked. “That’s not just being broken, or having a mental block, or just what everyone feels?”

“Attraction doesn’t get blocked out that easily by mental will. It’ll take something much more to make it fade if you’re an allosexual. And no, you’re not broken. And if it’s fluctuating enough for you to question, I’m pretty sure it's not a regular allosexual occurrence.”

Hide nodded in confirmation. “Sexual attraction doesn’t fluctuate as much as you described.”

Kaneki looked down at the pin. “Then... I guess I’m asexual?”

“And I’m aromantic!” Hide grinned.

Haru smiled at them. “Glad to see you two figure it out.”

“Thanks so much for explaining!”

“I’m sorry if we bothered you.”

“Not at all! This is what I’m here for! Information about aspecs especially is difficult to find! And I’m always up for talking about queer identities.”

---

“Kaneki, Kaneki, Kaneki!!!” Hide cried out as he ran over.

“What are you so excited about?” Kaneki asked.

Hide threw a small plastic package, and Kaneki just barely caught it in time.

“What is this?” Kaneki gave him a look. It wasn’t close to any holidays or special occasions.

“Haru remembered our identities, and when the club ordered more pins, they ordered an aroflux and aceflux pin for us!”

“That’s so nice.” Kaneki whispered.

“So open it! Also, I’m not sure which is which. Haru said that one was the aceflux one but I don’t know how they knew—”

Kaneki checked the bottom of the package. “It says aceflux on the label.”

“...” Hide flipped his package over too, and saw the barcode and label which read 'aroflux'. “...Oh.”

Kaneki laughed as he ripped the package open. Hide tore into his too.

Kaneki pulled out a pin with 5 stripes — a gradient of pink to purple. Hide’s also had 5 stripes, and a gradient of pink to green.

“I didn’t even know what the flag looked like.” Kaneki said. “I didn’t even know there was a flag!”

Hide clipped his pin on his shirt, joining the pan and aro pins he already had. Kaneki just held his pin in his hands — he was too nervous to wear them out in public, but he kept his pride pins together in a safe spot at home to admire.

Hide wore his aroflux and aromantic pins all day. It made Kaneki happy each time he saw them — that although he and Hide both experienced attraction differently than the average person, there were others out there like them. Other a-fluxes and also other aspecs.

Kaneki put his aceflux pin with his others once he got back to his home. He still had the asexual pin from Haru, and he also had a bi and rainbow pin that Hide had gifted him a while back. Kaneki then went onto his computer, onto aspec message boards and blogs that Haru had recommended. He kept glancing at his pins and smiling as he learned more about his fellow aces and aros.

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: A colored manga panel from Tokyo Ghoul, showing Hide smiling with his hand on Kaneki’s shoulder, who is staring at him from behind his kakuja mask, edited onto the following a-spec pride flags: aromantic, asexual, allo-aro, aro-ace, a-spec, allo-ace, aro-spec, ace-spec. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: Square edits of Ken Kaneki as a centipede from the Tokyo Ghoul 2016 Calendar (colored by @tgcalendar2016) edited against pride flags. Kaneki has white hair and is wearing a black battle suit, and has centipede antennae, a centipede tail, and red legs with white spikes. The flags are: bi, aromantic, asexual, allo-aro, aro-ace, allo-ace, larkspur gay, grey-romantic, and nebula-romantic. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: Official Tokyo Ghoul art of Kaneki, Hide, and Touka edited against ace-spec flags. The art is colored in hues of blue, and shows Kaneki looking at and reading a can of coffee, and Hide at his side handing Touka a can of coffee, who is standing across from them. Hide is smiling and Touka is staring at the offered coffee. The flags are: asexual, allo-ace, and ace-spec. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: A colored manga panel from Tokyo Ghoul of Touka and Kaneki back to back, ready to fight and defend themselves, edited onto pride flags: aromantic, asexual, trans, bi, polyamorous, nonbinary, allo-aro, aro-ace, and allo-ace. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: A colored manga panel from Tokyo Ghoul of Kaneki and Hinami, edited onto pride flags. Kaneki is standing behind Hinami holding scissors and a mirror, smiling as Hinami gasps happily at her new haircut. The flags are: bi, trans, trans woman, my transfeminine flag, asexual, and allo-ace. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

Tokyo Ghoul Aces

I thought it’d be fun to match up their ace cards with the corresponding acespec identities

Kaneki: Ace of Hearts - Alloromantic Asexual

Hide: Ace of Spades - Aromantic Asexual

Touka: Ace of Clubs - Greysexual

Tsukiyama: Ace of Diamonds - Demisexual

[ID: Images of two different compilations: 4 acespec pride icons using colored manga panels, and the 4 ace cards from the Tokyo Ghoul card deck. The order is the same as in the list above. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

Opposites

[ID: A Tokyo Ghoul:re manga panel showing Touka leaning against Kaneki, as he looks at her with a surprised expression. End ID]

Kaneki and Touka realize that neither of them are allo, and work out what kind of relationship they should have from now on. (Takes place after Ch125 but before the 24th Ward Raid)

Featuring: Alloace Kaneki, Alloaro Touka, a sexual queerplatonic relationship

Word Count: ~2000

Warnings: A bit of romantic sap because I headcanon Kaneki as a romantic person, mentions of romance and sex, internalized aphobia/amisia

(Also posted on Ao3)

---

Kaneki still couldn’t believe it. Touka married him. She was his wife. He had a wife! Whenever he thought of either of those two words — marriage and wife — oh, and husband too! — he would feel all happy and jittery and full of butterflies.

He would meet up with Touka in secret whenever he had time, and often they would do it. But after a while, Kaneki noticed something a little... strange? Whenever they had sex, it was always Touka’s idea. She was always the one that brought it up. She would ask him if he wanted to, and most times he would agree and then they would do it.

What the strange part of it was, was that whenever he was around Touka, he didn't exactly desire to have sex with her.

Yes, he did sleep with her when she brought it up and asked him. And yes, he enjoyed it — a lot — and he knew he had a sex drive, but he wondered why he never felt desire for Touka.

Am I not supposed to desire it? Did those high school guys truly make up and exaggerate those sexual desires? Is this how sex usually works? But then, what is it that makes Touka bring up wanting to have sex? It can’t just be that she’s more blunt than me, right? There’s gotta be something else.

Something I’m missing.

Maybe something’s wrong with me...

---

After so long, Kaneki was back. And he was back for good. They were together. And they were together-together too. They were an official item. They were even married now.

The first few days were wonderful. She knew for a while that Kaneki felt the same, but it was another thing entirely for them to hook up and sleep together.

The only problem was that Kaneki was... suffocating...? Touka wasn’t sure if it was the right word to use — it sounded a bit harsh, but it seemed to fit closely enough. Kaneki was always bright-eyed when he saw her, and blushing often, and unable to stop smiling at her. And after a while of being together he worked up the nerve to hug and cuddle her. He would snuggle and nuzzle up against her. She let him do it. That’s what couples did, after all! But as time passed, she grew more and more uncomfortable by the actions. At first she thought she was just in a bad position. So she would tell Kaneki and then she would find a more comfortable position and he would wrap his arms around her again. But no matter what position she tried, it still felt wrong.

It’s just a cuddle. Why is this so uncomfortable? Touka squeezed her eyes shut. I hope he gets up soon. I really don’t want his arms around me like this, but I can’t just tell him that.

Kaneki’s grip around her loosened, and then he pulled away completely.

“Hey.” He whispered softly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” She cried immediately, and gave him a smile. But he seemed to notice that it wasn’t genuine. He also noticed how she didn’t try to initiate the cuddle again despite claiming that everything was fine.

“Are you... not liking our relationship?” Kaneki asked.

“No!” She cried, and this time she sounded honest. “I love spending time with you! I love being with you! It’s nice.”

Kaneki quirked an eyebrow. “But... do you love me?”

She hesitated. It was such a simple phrase, but she found herself unable to say the words.

Kaneki’s eyes dropped. “So you don’t.”

“I... I don’t know.” Touka whispered. She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I thought I did. I don’t know what I feel.”

“What do you mean?” Kaneki asked.

Love was love. Sure, love was complicated, but he knew that the feeling he got when he was with Touka was love. The feeling when she kissed him, or even just touched him.

“I...” She hesitated. “You’re attractive, and I know that I would want to do it with you, but— It’s just not how I imagined it’d be.”

“What isn’t?”

“Being together. Dating.” Touka admitted. “Cuddling is so uncomfortable.” It sounded dumb when she said it out loud, and she turned away, ashamed of herself.

“Really?” Kaneki laughed a little. There was no judgement in it, just surprise. “Because it seems like it's almost the opposite for me.”

“Huh?” She looked back at him.

“I love cuddling, and kissing, and being with you. But I don’t care if I do it with you or not. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s nice and feels good and I do enjoy it. But if we were to never do it again, and we were to just... be close like this — cuddling — I wouldn’t mind it.”

Touka shook her head. “This isn’t right. This doesn’t make sense. Either of it.”

“...What do you mean?”

Am I really broken? Kaneki wondered. Are we both broken?

Touka jumped to her feet, and left the room.

Kaneki just sat there.

Is there something wrong with me? Or with her? Is there something wrong with both of us?

Touka peeked her head back in the room. “Come on. Follow me.”

He trailed behind her as she led the way to their command center. Once there, she plopped down at the computer, and brought up the search engine. She typed in “not enjoying romance in a relationship” and began scrolling. She stopped when something caught her eye.

“What’s that mean?” She pointed to the word “aromantic.”

Kaneki shrugged. He had never seen the word before. “Click it.”

They both scanned the page, and then came across the words “aromantic” and “asexual” and their definitions.

Asexuality: Feeling little to no sexual attraction.

Aromanticism: Feeling little to no romantic attraction.

“Sexual attraction?” Kaneki whispered to himself. “Asexual...?”

Touka brought up a new window, and searched “aromantic”. She brought up a few pages and read them. Kaneki read them too.

There were a few more definitions that varied slightly, a few images of flags, and then Touka found some personal stories. There was silence between them as Touka scrolled through forums and blogs, reading the experiences of these people that identified as aromantic.

“I... I think I’m aromantic.” Touka whispered after a while. “A lot of this fits.”

“Not the romantic part, but the sexual part fits me.” Kaneki said, pointing to someone’s story. They had described themself as an aromantic asexual. If Touka was aromantic, did that make him asexual?

“Can I?” Kaneki asked, gesturing to the computer screen.

Touka nodded and quickly sat up, letting Kaneki take her place. Just as Touka had done, he searched for experiences of asexuality on forums and blogs and read through them.

“Yeah, just like you said,” Touka began, “the sex parts don’t fit me, but a few of the romantic parts of the aromantic asexuals do fit me.”

Kaneki did one more quick search. If someone could be only asexual or only aromantic. He found confirmation that yes, someone could be one and not the other. He found out that people that were both were called aroaces. Those that were asexual but not aromantic were called alloaces. And those that were aromantic but not asexual were called alloaros.

“This all makes so much sense...” Touka whispered, “I thought I just didn’t like all that sappy romance because I was a tomboy!”

Kaneki nodded. “I know! Everything is coming together in my head now. I always wondered why teens were having sex in high school!”

They looked at each other, and then smiled. All their worries were gone. They weren’t broken, they were okay, they were normal!

Kaneki was asexual and Touka was aromantic.

---

“So now what?” Kaneki asked. “Now that you know you’re aromantic...” He glanced back at his computer and trailed off. Plenty of aromantics — aros, they called themselves — didn’t want to be in a romantic relationship.

Touka looked down. “I don’t know. I guess I... don’t love you, and apparently I never can...”

That was pretty daunting to think about.

“But you love me sexually?” Kaneki asked.

Touka grimaced. She opened her mouth, but hesitated at giving him an answer.

“I’m not judging, Touka-chan. I don’t mind and I don’t think it’s weird. I mean, I guess it is a little weird to me because I’m apparently asexual and I didn’t know sexual attraction was even a thing until now, and I can’t even imagine what it feels like — but I just want to know how you feel, and I think that we should try to work out whatever our relationship should be.”

Touka nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I feel sexually attracted to you, and you’re one of my best friends, and I care about you a lot, but not in a romantic way.”

“Okay, well, I feel romantically attracted to you but not sexually. And yeah, you’re one of my best friends too. And although I’m not sexually attracted to you, you are the only person I’d be willing to do it with.”

“Really?” Touka asked.

Kaneki nodded. “Like I said earlier, I do enjoy it. I think I’m — what was the word?” He turned back to the computer, and scanned the page. “Sex-favorable. Yeah. A sex-favorable ace.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t like the cuddling.” Kaneki said. “So then, if we decide to keep ‘dating’, what will that make our relationship? Friends with benefits?”

“Maybe...” Touka whispered. “But I don’t want us to go back to how our relationship was before. I like the domestic part we have now. The late night talks in bed. I... I’ve always wanted to have a partner and a family, and I think I would like to have one with you.”

“Y-you do?” Kaneki asked. His face was heating up.

“But... I don’t want us to cuddle. And I don’t always like kissing.”

“That’s okay with me, Touka-chan.” He whispered softly.

“It is? You wouldn’t want a wife that you can kiss and cuddle and for her to enjoy all of it?”

“I love you, Touka-chan.”

“But... I can’t love you.”

Kaneki opened his arms, asking for a hug.

Touka hesitated for a moment, but decided she wanted the comfort so she walked into his arms. Kaneki gave really good hugs.

“I know you can’t love me romantically, Touka-chan. Please don’t feel bad about that. You’re aromantic, it’s just who you are. And besides, I know you do care for me, it’s just not in a romantic way. That’s enough for me.”

---

The next days were spent adjusting how their relationship worked. Kaneki made sure to ask before doing anything romantic. Cuddles were out, but Touka enjoyed sitting directly beside Kaneki so that they were still touching. Sometimes she would intertwine their arms or legs. She didn’t like the romantic nature of cuddling, but she did like having Kaneki’s presence directly beside her.

Kaneki would also always ask before kissing Touka. Some times she would say it was okay, sometimes she would direct him to kiss her cheek or hand instead, and other times she didn’t want to be kissed at all.

Whenever they did it, Touka made sure to pay closer attention to Kaneki’s reactions. He tended to miss a lot of sexual cues, so she continued to bluntly ask him if he wanted to have sex. She made sure that he always wanted to, and that he was never doing it out of some sense of obligation.

On their own time, they each did research on their own identities, as well as the other’s identity. They learned all they could, and then had discussions with each other about the specific nuances of their own identities and boundaries. It was very much a learning curve, and their relationship was pretty unconventional and growing more so, but they were able to make it work, and they were both happy.

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

Dragon Ace Kaneki

I mean,,, he literally turns into a dragon

The color scheme ended up really matching the alloace flag

(Stock images taken from Pixabay; the colored manga panels are mine)

[ID: Two 3-by-3 image moodboards; the first has an asexual border and the second has an alloace border. Both moodboards use the same images. In order, they are: purple and black sequins, a colored manga panel of Kaneki’s dragon-like kakuja form when fighting Juuzou, purple sequins, a colored manga panel of Kaneki’s dragon-like kakuja mask when fighting Arima, a Kaneki headshot from the cover of :re Volume 7, a colored manga panel of Kaneki’s Dragon form, an eastern dragon design on a white background, black books, and grey scales. END ID]