Judal froze where he was clinging to the alley wall, eyes helplessly fixed on his friend. It was worse, almost, now that his eyes had regained lucidity. When Kaneki had first turned, first glanced away from his dinner, Judal had been positive he would be next. There was nothing in those mismatched eyes but hunger, a feral gaze he never thought he would be targeted with.
A desperate and unconscious whine of fear passed from his lips as his name entered the stained air. He had never wanted to know what the syllables of his name looked like on bloodstained lips.
And it wasn’t fair that there was fear plastered across Kaneki’s face. It wasn’t fair, because an expression like that made Judal instinctively want to help him, but a large part of him wanted to flee that alley and never ever return. The conflicting halves met in the middle, and so he remained where he was, using the texture of the brick beneath his fingers to distract himself from the horror of his other senses.
He tore his eyes away from his sobbing friend, trying so incredibly hard to shut down the terror consuming his mind and quickening his pulse. This isn’t some monster. This is Kaneki. He’s not gonna hurt you.
But, of course, avoiding looking at the living figure left his eyes with only one place to rest; as soon as they landed on the ravaged body of the nameless man, his nausea rose again and he threw up violently.
He stumbled backwards and hit the wall, half sinking to the ground as he squeezed his eyes shut and covered his mouth with his hand, preferring the bitter taste in his mouth to the iron in his nose.
The stench of vomit hit Kaneki hard; making his stomach roil in discomfort as he sat with his back pressed against the rough brick. Tears stung the corners of the half ghoul's eyes as sobs pulled themselves from his chest, but Kaneki could do little else other than curl up tighter on himself where he sat. He was distantly aware that Judal hadn't left the alley yet, but he couldn't understand why.
Surely he would have run away after all that? He'd even been physically ill.. Perhaps he couldn't run away? He'd heard him stumble..
The thought had Kaneki slowly raising his head just a fraction; barely enough for mismatched eyes to peer over his knees across the alleyway. Judal was leaning back against the alley wall, eyes clenched shut and a pale hand clamped tightly over his mouth. It was just barely noticeable, but Kaneki could see a slight tremor in the others shoulders as well, though whether it stemmed from fear or disgust, Kaneki couldn’t tell.
Now that his initial panic had faded slightly, Kaneki wanted to scream at him; what kind of absolute fool would just stay in an alley with that’s obviously a hungry ghoul? What the hell was wrong with him? He’s plainly terrified; Judal should be screaming, should be bolting out of this cramped, disgusting alley as fast as his shaky legs could carry him. Why wasn’t he running.
For an instant, the idea of Judal sprinting away sent a thrill through him; he could practically feel the adrenaline pulsing through his blood, reveling in the idea of chasing him down and pinning the older male to the ground. He’d celebrate his victory with a gutteral laugh before leaning down and-
Kaneki curled in tighter on himself with a whine, ducking his head back down as hunger flared in his gut. “Please.. Judal..” The half-ghoul nearly whimpered.
“I feel like if it were me, I’d try to keep work and home separate. Y’know, maybe not have coffee everywhere? Haven’t you gotten sick of it yet?” He shifted through the assembled army of coffee containers, waiting and ready to give him his much needed fix. So many. “Glad you’re making it. You’re better.”
“Seriously, my fort skills can’t be paralleled. Hell, I’ll even come in to show her how to make one myself.” Kids weren’t really his deal… But this was for a higher cause. “And I still make them because they’re fun.” And because he acted like a five-year old most of the time.
“Honestly you shouldn’t say things like that. It makes it sound like a challenge.”
“Please don’t take that as a challenge, I’m not taking you to the hospital afterward.” Really, he shouldn’t have expected anything less from him. Plucking up the coffee container that Judal currently had in his hands, Kaneki set about making the coffee.
“And to answer your question; no, I haven’t gotten tired of coffee yet Judal.” Kaneki answered with a roll of his eyes. He’d bee really out of luck if that ever happened.. It was bad enough to be stuck with just water and coffee, but to have to go off of just water? That would just suck.
“Though in all honesty, I’d rather if you showed me how to do the fort rather than going to visit Hinami-chan directly if you don’t mind. I think I told you before that she’s a pretty shy kid.” Kaneki added, handing Judal his cup of coffee.
[text]; I feel like I’m being eaten away at from the inside out sometimes. As if one day I’m going to wake up and I won’t be me anymore, and it terrifies me to no end. If I could have one thing finally go my way though, it would be that when the day comes, you’re not forced to see it.
“You need to increase your Halloween spirit, Kaneki. I mean, I mostly live here anyway. And I can’t survive in a non-spooky house.”
“I already had decorations up to begin with Judal, now it just looks like I went and robbed a Halloween store.” He wanted to shoot back a comment of ‘but that’s the thing, you don’t live here’ but the argument died on the tip of his tongue.
“That has to be the shittiest pun I’ve ever heard.” Another nail hammered into the coffin – Everything about this was so damn different. But hey, at least he was giving the fort a try. Judal couldn’t really complain about that. “But… Whatever. Puns aside, let’s do this.”
Haise’s smile faltered a bit at Judal’s comment, pale cheeks colouring slightly with embarrassment at his ill-received attempt at humor. Maybe he should have just kept that last comment to himself...
“My room would probably be the best place to do this.. I’ll gather up all of the spare blankets and pillows.” Haise said before turning on his heel to start collecting what they’d need.
“Oh, really? You haven’t? We should totally build one… I mean they’re great.”
“Um.. Sure. That sounds like it could be fun.” What a weird request... Oh well, it wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d ever been asked to do by far. “I just hope that we don’t have too much fun that we end up bringing the house down.”
