#queerplatonic hidekane

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

Valentine's Day

Featuring: Platonic / Queerplatonic Hidekane

Word Count: 1800

Warnings: None

(AO3 Link)

It was Valentine’s Day — the romantic holiday where girls would gift chocolate to the men in their lives: Giri Chocolate for friends, classmates, and coworkers, and Honmei Chocolate for crushes.

Kaneki hadn’t gotten close to any girls this year, so it was unlikely that Kaneki would receive any chocolates from anyone. The same thing happened to him last year.

Hide meanwhile, always got at least one. Hide always dreaded this holiday, because he always turned down all his admirers. He wished he could give his admirers to Kaneki, but romantic love didn’t work that way.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.” Hide said, whipping out a bouquet and box of chocolates from behind his back and holding it out in front of him. In Japan, it was usually only girls giving out chocolates, but Hide didn’t care about that.

“What’s this for?” Kaneki asked.

Hide rolled his eyes playfully. “It’s for you, dummy.”

“Oh.” Kaneki whispered. He took the flowers and sniffed them. “Why yellow?”

“Yellow flowers mean platonic love.” Hide said as he took a seat across from Kaneki. “Who says Valentine’s Day has to be romantic?”

“Thank you.” Kaneki whispered, grinning happily.

Hide smiled, glad that he made Kaneki’s day.

Kaneki took a look at the chocolate packaging next. “These are store-bought, right?”

Traditionally, store-bought chocolates were for classmates and friends, while homemade chocolates were made specifically for crushes.

“I think I’ll keep that a secret for now. You have to guess once you eat them.” Hide said, winking at him.

“If they are homemade, you really didn’t have to.” Kaneki said, starting to get embarrassed. Knowing him, he probably felt like a burden.

“I didn’t have to do any of this,” Hide said, “but I wanted to. For you, and only you. You’re my best friend, Kaneki, and you deserve to have a great Valentine’s Day.”

Kaneki blinked, his eyes watering. Hide was about to apologize for making him cry, when Kaneki lunged forward and hugged him.

“Thank you, Hide.”

As White Day approached, Hide was stressing over what he should give back to the people that gave him chocolates on Valentine’s Day. He had received some friendship chocolates from his clubmates, which was easy enough to reciprocate. He also received a surprise of romantic chocolates from two male students in his year, which he didn’t reciprocate feelings for but made him very happy nonetheless. He decided to get them friendship chocolate, but something nice. And then, there were various friendship and romantic chocolates from the girls in his class. And Hide wasn’t sure what to give them. Part of him held resentment, because they didn’t give friendship or even obligation chocolates to Kaneki. But another part of Hide told him that was unfair. It probably wasn’t out of any malice towards Kaneki, but the simple fact that Hide was outgoing and friendly and funny, and Kaneki kept to himself and made it difficult for strangers to approach or befriend him.

And so, by White Day, Hide was completely exhausted. He had been stressing over what to buy, and then he had to run around the whole school and give everything out.

“Um, Hide?” Kaneki asked.

“Yeah?” Hide groaned. He didn’t mean to be rude to his friend, but he was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. He didn’t care if they still had a class or two left before they could go home.

Kaneki walked up in front of his desk, and he was blushing.

Hide picked his head up, growing curious and a bit concerned.

“I… I wanted to give you this.” Kaneki said, holding out his hands, holding a white-wrapped box of chocolates and a bouquet of white roses.

Hide’s jaw dropped. He had been so busy buying, preparing, and giving out reciprocation chocolates, he completely forgot about the one person who could reciprocate to him.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Hide whispered.

“I wanted to!” Kaneki said, reaching out further with the box, insisting that Hide take it, so he did.

“Are these homemade?” Hide asked, throwing Kaneki a smirk.

“Try them and see.” Kaneki said, his blush only increasing.

“I love them, Kaneki.” Hide said, standing up and hugging his friend. “Thank you so much!”

We need to make this a tradition, Hide thought. I’ll surprise him again next year.

Years ago, Hide had always dreaded Valentine’s Day for the way it made his friend miserable. But after last year, Hide gained a newfound love for the holiday. Despite traditionally being a romantic holiday — celebrating straight girls in love with straight boys, no less — Hide had made the decision to disregard that and celebrate it the way he wanted, to make his friend happy. And he intended to do the same this year, too.

Once again, he made homemade chocolates and bought yellow roses. But he made more chocolates this year, and had a larger and more elegant bouquet. He couldn’t wait to surprise Kaneki once again. He probably assumed last year would be a one-time thing!

For seemingly the first time, Kaneki was late to their class. So Hide hid the bouquet and chocolates under his jacket, and did his best to wait patiently for Kaneki to arrive.

He was digging through his backpack when he heard Kaneki call out his name from the other side of the room.

So Hide quickly switched to grab his Valentine’s Day gift, and then he sat upwards and held it out.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!!!”

He blinked as Kaneki said the exact same words as he did. Kaneki was also holding out a flower bouquet and a box of chocolates.

They both stared at each other in surprise for a moment, and then they started laughing.

“Well, don’t just stand there!” Hide said. “Sit! Pull up a desk! Let’s see what we got each other!”

Kaneki did so, and then they exchanged gifts.

Hide’s had been an elegant step up from last year, but Kaneki’s gift was new. He had gotten a bouquet of sunflowers, and the chocolate box was decorated with sunflowers too.

“Oh, Kaneki…” Hide whispered, growing emotional. His White Day gift from last year had been fairly simple, running with the white theme. But with the freedom of valentine’s day, he clearly put more thought into it.

“I’m sorry if I made this awkward…” Kaneki whispered. Usually Valentine’s Day in Japan was one-sided, and the reciprocation gift had to wait until White Day. When it came to straight couples, this was simple enough. The girls were Valentine’s Day, and the boys were White Day. But when that didn’t apply, things got confusing.

“No, no.” Hide said. “I mean, this was bound to happen eventually. And I love it. You didn’t make this awkward, you made it wonderful.”

Kaneki nodded, and then smiled, a blush creeping onto his face. “Okay, good. I like it too.”

Once again, they thanked each other for the gifts and hugged.

“So, are we going to skip White Day…?” Kaneki asked once they had settled.

“Are you kidding? No way!”

And sure enough, they both reciprocated each other’s gifts again on White Day. It wasn’t exactly a surprise anymore, but they were both just as deeply touched.

---

Guilt stabbed at Hide as he saw all the advertisements for Valentine’s Day. It used to be a holiday that brought him so much joy, but things were different now. Kaneki was a ghoul, and he couldn’t have chocolates. Sure, he could have coffee, but he couldn’t have foam, and Hide doubted that black coffee would be special when Kaneki drank it all day long, every day.

So instead, he got Kaneki a yellow rose bouquet, and a cute coffee mug about friendship.

Hide knocked on Kaneki’s apartment door, and then nervously waited outside. He hoped that Kaneki would like the gifts. He hoped that it wouldn’t make Kaneki sad that he couldn’t enjoy Valentine’s Day the way he used to anymore.

“Who is it?” Kaneki called from the other side.

“It’s Hide!”

A moment later, the door opened.

“Happy Valen—!”

“Happy Valentine’s Day!!!”

Hide gaped as Kaneki held out a bouquet and chocolates, just like old times.

“Again, huh? I should have known!” Kaneki laughed. “...Hey, what’s wrong?”

Hide blinked. “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Kaneki frowned. “Why are you apologizing?”

Hide set down his gifts, and then hugged Kaneki. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. You didn’t have to do that for me.”

Kaneki pulled out of Hide’s embrace to look him in the eyes. “What? What are you talking about?”

“The chocolates. I know you can’t eat them, and they probably don’t even smell good to you. You didn’t need to get me anything. I wouldn’t have cared, Kaneki. This was all my idea to begin with in the first place.”

“No, no, Hide.” Kaneki said, rubbing his shoulders. “I made you chocolates because I wanted to, not of any obligation. It doesn’t bother me. It was fun, actually. Sometimes it’s a bit sad, sure. That I can’t enjoy them anymore. But you can, and that’s all that’s important. You’re the one that didn’t need to get me anything.”

Hide hugged him again. “Of course I got you something!”

“Touka-chan is right.” Kaneki sighed. “We really are the same, aren’t we?”

Hide laughed through a happy sob. “I guess we really are.”

Kaneki pulled out of the hug. “Come inside. We should stop standing in the doorway and letting all the cold air in.”

“Alright!”

Hide picked up his gift to Kaneki, and they went to sit at his dining table. There, Hide properly gave him his gift.

“Hide, this is so sweet.” Kaneki said, admiring the coffee cup. “I thought you would just give me flowers, or nothing at all.”

“I know you probably have more than enough coffee cups.” Hide muttered.

“I love it.” Kaneki said, setting it down. “And the flowers too, of course. As beautiful as always, and they smell much stronger and sweeter to me now, too.”

Hide smiled. He had forgotten that Kaneki had enhanced senses. He was really glad that Kaneki could get enjoyment out of his gift after all.

“You can eat them now, if you want.” Kaneki said, gesturing to the chocolate box in front of Hide. “I don’t mind.”

“Are you sure?”

Kaneki nodded. “Tell me how they are. It’s the same recipe, but there’s a chance they might not be as good because, well, you know.”

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Hide said, opening the box.

“I’m going to make a cup of coffee.” Kaneki said, grabbing his new mug from Hide and then heading into the kitchen.

Hide popped a chocolate into his mouth and ate it. “As good as always, Kaneki!”

“I’m glad!”

When his coffee was done, Kaneki came back to sit by him, and Hide ate a few more chocolates.

On White Day, they once again gave each other reciprocated gifts. And the tradition continued to live on.

[transsexualhamlet]

Honestly, I could happily see Hidekane as a queerplatonic pairing just as easily as a romantic one. I don't see platonic love as any less than romantic, but the fact that Tokyo Ghoul treats platonic relationships as less valuable than romantic ones makes me very suspicious of people who have read the series and still say Hide and Kaneki were canonically 'friends' and nothing else. If they say Hide and Kaneki were 'JUST friends' I'm going to assume they are homophobic and afraid of two male characters being anything more than 'just' friends.

Uhg I hate heteronormativity and the prioritization of romance irl and in TG. Ishida wrote a series that LOOKS supportive of marginalized people but isn't in the slightest. Queer representation and portrayal of relationships speak volumes about the writer and his prejudices.

Literally. No, TG is SO not supportive of these things, it would be so much better to never try to include them at all instead of including characters that are made specifically to make the community represent look like pervs and monsters. It’s so blatantly on purpose too like

Yeah, I mean totally!! It doesn’t matter to me either way but people who don’t wanna see it that way specifically are probably sus just because of how it’s treated in general. As even a platonic friend, Hide got the short end of, well, everything to Touken which like could have been good as a relationship but, uh, wasn’t

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: Official Tokyo Ghoul art of Kaneki, Hide, and Touka edited against a-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: a-spec, aplatonic, 5-stripe queerplatonic, and yellow heart 7-stripe queerplatonic. END ID]

[tokyoghoulaspecs]

[ID: Four sets of Tokyo Ghoul manga colorings, each showing a different pair of characters against 2 different queerplatonic flags, one with yellow / pink / white / grey / black stripes, and the other with a yellow heart and pink / dark grey / grey / white / grey / dark grey / pink stripes.

The first set shows Touka and Kaneki back to back, ready to fight and defend themselves. The second set shows Touka and Hide from the back, standing and staring at each other. The third set shows Hide and Yoriko beside each other, Hide in the foreground and Yoriko slightly more in the background. The fourth set shows Hide smiling  with his hand on Kaneki’s shoulder, who is staring at him from behind  his kakuja mask. END ID]