#can you tell I specialize in canon charaters x original character pairings?

[hexwritesfanfics]

[to be human]

A/N: To be completely honest, a lot of my Tokyo Ghoul-related fics are on Wattpad, but since I’m not on the site much anymore and constantly posting on here more actively, now you get to see my trash. My long-running Tokyo Ghoul fic is also on Wattpad because I can’t post nineteen chapters in one go.

Fandom: Tokyo Ghoul

Pairing: Kaneki x OC

Warning: slight angst

“I still remember. Do you?”

    Kaneki received no response; really, he didn’t need one. He knew she remembered. She never truly forgot anything, not even the barest of details about him. He sighed, brushing his fingers against the soft pale skin of Hanami’s cheek, the warmth so familiar after basking within it for so long. He had tried to taint her, to make her like him, but in the end, she had freed him of the darkness inside.

    She loved every fractured piece of him and he loved every shattered piece of her.

    “I still remember when you tried to visit me in the hospital after the accident,” Kaneki murmured, his tone taking on a tint of regret. “You and Hide, you both tried and I turned you both away. I wish I had let the two of you visit if I could turn back time.”

    He paused for a moment.

    “If I could turn back time,” he continued, “I would have recognized how you felt about me sooner.”

    Hanami still hadn’t responded, but honestly what could Kaneki have expected? Ever since that battle against the CCG, her ghoul gene was forcibly triggered when the Doves were cutting into her body before his eyes. When Kaneki received a grievous blow, Hanami had gone ballistic and attacked every Dove within their vicinity. She had received a blow in turn, but there was something odd by how she shielded her body. Kaneki found out why much later.

    Makine Hanami, the only trace left of his human past, was the girl who loved him when he was human and loved him as he was now. She was the girl he had taken, the girl who tried to appeal to his humanity by releasing her. But Kaneki couldn’t let her go; not when she carried memories of a time when his fate wasn’t cruel. She was his, a beautiful flower much like her name that he held in his bloodied hands.

    Kaneki’s hand drifted from its place against Hanami’s cheek down to her hand, twining his fingers with hers. It had been two long years since Hanami’s eyes closed on that battle field, but she wasn’t dead. After the recessive ghoul gene inside of her body was triggered, Hanami was in bed in a new hideout, healing. Kaneki wasn’t sure how long her coma would last.

    I’m just like you now, she had said to him on the battlefield, with tears streaming from her eyes—the rubies he was so familiar with now fully formed kakugan. She was smiling though, not because of that; she understood him better now that she was somewhat the same. Hanami was a half-breed whose humanity was the most dominant of her. No matter how her DNA was constructed in her mother’s womb, Hanami was more human than he ever could be again.

    “She still hasn’t woken up?”

    Kaneki was pulled from his reverie by Touka’s voice and he turned his gaze to the dark-haired female. While Kaneki knew of Touka’s feelings toward him, he was grateful for her presence. She had pulled him from the brink when he thought he had lost Hanami forever. She still kept him in check while he sat at Hanami’s bedside.

    “Not yet,” he replied softly, lifting Hanami’s hand to his lips to press a gentle kiss to her fingers. “I would have think she’d open her eyes by now.”

    “You two went through the wringer, Kaneki.” Touka’s voice was soft. “And Hanami…her body couldn’t handle the strain of her genes taking over on top of being…”

    Tortured. The one word Touka or Kaneki could never say. The CCG had taken Hanami from him after finding out that her father was a ghoul under the alias of “Red Eyes”. From what Kaneki was told, Hanami’s father was a ferocious ghoul that had gone under the grid after he had taken a human woman as a mate—and no one had realized from that union came a half-breed unlike the usual. Hanami was born an anomaly, a half-breed that should have been impossible to give birth to. Her mother’s pregnancy was as normal as a human’s—the only difference was that the daughter was born with unformed kakugan, no kagune, and her mother had repeatedly tried to kill her.

    Hanami understood faster than Kaneki could that her mother didn’t realize she had conceived a child with a ghoul. “Red Eyes” had disappeared before Hanami’s birth and Hanami had met her father on the battlefield—as a quinque. Even now, Kaneki felt anger toward the CCG. While Amon Kotaro was a Dove Kaneki respected, the other Doves were quick to put a scared girl on a slab and carve her open because she was the daughter of a ghoul.

    Touka sighed softly. She knew how difficult this was for Kaneki, to watch as his mate was comatose. She had met Hanami only a handful of times and could see that the brunette was pure. All she wanted was to do was see Kaneki again. Glancing back, Touka smiled softly. “She wants to see you,” she told Kaneki, returning her gaze to him. “She wants you to tell the story of how you and Hanami met.”

    A smile curved Kaneki’s lips faintly. “If she insists.”

    Touka exited the room and, not a few minutes later, a little girl no older than two toddled in, walking toward Kaneki. Her curling, black hair was held slightly at bay with hairclips shaped like roses, her cheeks a rosy pink as she held out her hands. Kaneki reached for the child, hoisting her into his arms. “Have you been giving Touka-chan a hard time, Sayuri?” he asked.

    Sayuri pouted and Kaneki couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him before she lay her head on his shoulder. The child definitely took after her mother when making that face. “I want to see mama,” she chirped. “Papa keeps mama all to himself.”

    “I do, don’t I?” Kaneki smoothed a hand against Sayuri’s cheek, getting to his feet to pace near Hanami’s bed. “That isn’t fair of me, is it?”    

    “No, no, no, papa, not fair,” cooed Sayuri, her small arms banding around Kaneki’s neck. She lifted her head to peer at him with large, ruby eyes. That was one of the things Sayuri had inherited from her mother.

    “Touka-chan told me you want papa to tell you a story.”

    Sayuri nodded before laying her head against his shoulder. “About papa and mama.”

    “Where to begin,” laughed Kaneki as he looked at Hanami.

    “Papa say mama was like a princess.”

    “That’s right. Mama was like a princess, with pretty eyes like yours.”

    “Is mama a ghoul too?”

    Kaneki looked toward Hanami before returning his gaze to Sayuri, bouncing the toddler gently in his arms to get her to sleep. “Mama is the most human person papa has ever met, Sayuri. Do you know why?”

    “Why?”

    “Because mama’s heart is full of love. Love for you, love for me, and love for all of our friends here.”

    Sayuri rubbed her eyes. “Papa?”

    “Yes?”

    “Will mama ever wake up?”

    Kaneki sighed heavily, resting his head gently against Sayuri’s. “She will. Mama is just resting for a while so she can play with you for as long as you want,” he assured. It was a question Sayuri often posed every night after she’d “fight” with Touka on seeing him to hear stories about Hanami.

    As much as Kaneki wished Hanami would open her eyes day after day these past two years, she had given him the most precious treasure Kaneki would ever hope to have in his life. He only hoped she would wake up soon to experience the joy of caring for that treasure. Sayuri was a part of Kaneki and a part of Hanami, their treasured daughter, beloved by everyone in their current hideout. Until Hanami awakened, Kaneki would have to protect both her and Sayuri. They were the reason he could feel human again, the reason why his heart was so full.  

    “Papa?” Sayuri mumbled sleepily and Kaneki rubbed the child’s back soothingly with a soft hum. “Can I stay here with you and mama?”

    Kaneki smiled softly. “How about I lay you down next to mama?”

    “Please?”

    Kaneki moved toward Hanami’s bedside, gently easing his daughter onto the bed beside her mother after gently shifting Hanami’s arm. Sayuri curled against Hanami, resting her head against the space on Hanami’s shoulder and closing her eyes, falling asleep surrounding by her mother’s warmth. Kaneki threaded his fingers through Sayuri’s raven curls gently, his eyes soft. “Good night, my precious flowers” he whispered, leaning down to press a kiss against Sayuri’s head and one against Hanami’s lips.