A/N: I'd like to think there's some significance when Juuzou didn't fatally wound Kuro. I ship Juuzou with many others, but I think these two would be cute.

Disclaimer: Ishida Sui is an awesome author and he owns everything.

In Stitches

Chapter 1

Kuro's New Friend

.

.

.

Shinohara

Shinohara sat on the far corner of Anteiku. He held a newspaper up to cover his face and continued eyeing the pair across the room.

He had been tailing his adoptive son and, he must say, the scene playing in front of him was a nice change of atmosphere amongst the endless mourning of deaths of coworkers since the end of the great Aogiri/CCG war.

After the hideous incident that left them both with a missing lower limb, Shinohara was quite perceptive that Juuzo Suzuya, the once unfeeling child, was slowly but undeniably growing emotionally.

Yes, the day he first woke up on his hospital bed had left him awry with confusion because of the flower on his stomach, but once he saw Juuzo eating a donut on the sit beside his bed waiting on him, he realized that there was something humane that was starting to flourish in the youth- confirming it, all the more, when the kid energetically pounced on him after noticing that he was, at last, already conscious.

Kurona's Flashback

There he was again standing at her front door. She pulled herself away from the peephole and stared at the door for a second before turning to cross her living room to go and continue about with the food preparation she was doing beforehand.

It's been months since he started visiting her. At first, she thought he came to eradicate her due to her past connections, but when she did open her door for him one time she was caught in surprise when her expectation of his usual creepy shota demeanor was shook out of her mind when his eyes widened upon seeing the door open and when he scratched his head in a shy schoolboy manner.

It was very uncharacteristic to say the least. He was an emotionless death god since who knows when. Not even the concept of childhood could erase that fact. Him ruthlessly killing cats, dogs, or even the smallest kind of insects in the CCG scouts' premises were proof of that.

So what was a shy schoolboy doing there waiting patiently at her front-steps?

For someone who killed her sister, he sure has guts.

The only thing that's confusing her now is how, she too, is not acting like herself.

What was she waiting for? Days with the chances of killing him had passed, but why was she still not acting out of anger.

On the first day he showed up knocking at her door, she was sure that the fear and grief overwhelming her was just her emotions preparing her for a bigger surge of anger, anger enough to even bring about the bloodlust she should have felt for his misdeeds. But when days passed that her expectations from both his and her own actions were all stunted with normalcy on both sides, she tried to stop the building routine by finally confronting him. Thus, that one time she opened her door for him.

And there he was, scratching his head, she recalls. Acting like there were no issues of death present between the two of them. Irritatingly, she asked him to leave. He complied without a word of protest, turning away as if he hadn't been waiting months for her to face him. The only confusing thing he did was frown like a baby denied of what he wanted, but he turned away nonetheless.

It was the end of the cycle, she thought. There would be no killer outside her front door the next day. She surmised it with vague relief.

The next day after that incident did come, and when she arrived from her new part-time job, the raven-haired girl was not quite expectant of seeing the same image of the boy sitting once again in front of her doorstep.

"Okaeri nasai, Kuro-chan!" The boy bounced to his feet, smiling at her as if she did not shooed him yesterday.

"What are you doing here?" She glared at him intensely. Wondering if the boy had lost his sanity-his usual sanity, anyway- in the midst of fighting in the war.

"Ne, ne. Don't be so grumpy, Kuro-chan." The boy continued to grin. The stitches on the corner of his lips stretched to accommodate it.

Kurona was still glaring at him when he moved to reach her where she's standing. However, a frightened look overtook her facade when she saw him pull something out of his pants' pocket. It glinted only a little, but Kurona assumed that it was his infamous dagger. She stepped back away as possible from him and closed her eyes in fear when her spatial senses told her that his fast pace had already made her efforts futile.

He reached her without effort. She flinched when she felt a light graze on her forehead and tightened her closed eyes further when she felt a tug on her hair. Was this how it felt when you die swiftly?

She felt a slight weight push her forehead. 'Papa?' she thought. Only her Papa kissed her on the forehead like that.

"Well, that looks good." She heard someone say in a happy tone. She blinked for a while, and stared straight at the eyes of the person right in front of her.

"What are y-" her question was cut short when he grabbed her hand and tugged her to follow him.

Kurona followed in a daze and looked at the hand pulling hers. His hands were big and too calloused compared to hers. It totally contrasted his facade. This hand—his wide palm, long fingers - was the hand of a man. The same hand like that of a - of- of her sister's killer.

She snapped out of her thoughts and pulled her hand away from the boy's.

"Eh?" The white-haired boy faced her in confusion. "Why, Kuro-chan?"

"Will you stop this right now?" She looked down with a grim face, failing to hide much of it because of the two clips he had put there to hold her long fringes. "CAN'T YOU JUST PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!"

She felt two hands run beside her waist and encompass her in a tight hug. He was taller than her but he had bent down to let her face rest on the junction of his neck and shoulders.

The girl, who was already too surprised with his overall change of heart, felt shock run through her spine. He was soft, and though she kept repeating that the person who held her was the same one who killed her sister, she can't help but notice how comforting his hug was.

"Kurona?"

She looked up to see Juuzou's wide curious eyes. He twisted his lips to a smile and kissed her forehead again as if it solved and explained everything.

"Iku yo." He slipped her fingers between his this time and pulling her, he led her to a coffee shop called Anteiku.

Kurona

She doesn't know why but that one moment became a series of repeated visits to the shop.

Suzuya Juuzou was still as unfathomable as ever. He was sitting across her poking at the cake that the old guy of the shop told them was the new creation of Anteiku.

A little guilt still bothered her when seeing him. But she pushed it away, praying that her sister would somehow forgive her.

Juuzou might be an oddball and an old ruthless killer, but he was changed. Somehow, that's what she could conclude with the times that she'd spent being dragged around by him.

She stared at him, thoughtful.

She could move to another ward and continue her life of peace without his constant pestering, but it's already been 3 weeks and she can't deny that his presence in her life is the only thing she's been starting to look forward to each passing day.

The alone times she had spent after the death of her sister made her independent. Open up, even, to learning new things alone for a change.

But maybe- just maybe- it's okay to let herself need someone after being alone for a long time? She was tired of being alone. Her bad records of her past life were strewn all over the television for a year and it made it hard for her to live on the 'peaceful' new world between the ghouls and humans. But Juuzou started bugging her when she moved to the 20th ward and kicked her life off her planned course. Maybe, it was time she could let someone in her life for a change?

The stitch-filled guy in front of her chomped down on the last pieces of the cake, and she laughed at the idea that he looked like 'L' from Deathnote, the anime that Nashiro have always liked when they were still young.

"Eh?" He looked up at her. "Ahahaha! Kuro-chan, Kuro-chan-"he laughed off again and pointed at her face.

She brushed it off thinking it was one of his usual weird antics.

When he did tone down his laughing, he reached for her across the table and wiped the side of her lips to clean a dark stain from her black coffee. As if not satisfied, he squinted for a second and neared his face to hers.

Her eyes widened.

Shinohara

He was keeping a close watch on the two, and it has been 20 minutes since he started smiling like an idiot as he continued to be a witness of the two's 'date'.

He was sipping his coffee with a smug smile when he saw his kid nearing the girl across him. He choked on his coffee and started coughing it out violently as he saw that what was supposed to be an innocent kiss was actually Juuzou licking the side of the girl's face.

Someone patted his back hard to relieve him of his coughing fit.

"Ah! It's you, Shinohara-san." He looked at the old man who served him in the past and widened his eyes when he realized how loud the old man had been.

Across the shop was a staring Suzuya.

"Kuro-chan." He glanced back at his still-shocked companion. "Leave the bill all up to me. I'll pay for your coffee!" He grinned his awfully creepy grin and called out to the two older men looking at him. "Yo! Yoshimura-san, charge my bill on that man."

Before Yoshimura could reply, the boy had already carried his protesting companion bridal style and jumped out the window.

Shinohara hit his forehead with his open palm in frustration. He should think about teaching the boy normal dating etiquette. Because Suzuya Juuzou's bad courting habits surpasses even that of the worst ghoul's.

To those who don't know:

Okaeri nasai = Welcome home.

Iku yo = Let's go.