Hamburger helper

Hide walked into the dorm his best friend was holing himself up in as the anti-social person he was. As he closed the door and began walking toward the couch his friend was residing on he let out a sigh to make his presence known as Kaneki had his nose in a book.

"That's fine. Ignore me. No burgers for you then! "Hide spoke sarcastically.

"Oh. Hey Hide. Burgers again? Well if you made them…"

"You know I did! And they're my secret recipe ones!"

"Oh then I'll have three."

"Man your appetite is strong Neki."

Hide got plates and sat down on the couch next to Kanek. Kaneki took the food from Hide and began to eat, while Hide just flipped through the new current book "Ghouls and How They Live".

"Mmm… eese awre ood. Watsh in em? "Kaneki had his mouth full.

Hide whispered with a smile. "That's a secret Neki."

Hides became serious as he spoke to himself in his mind. I'll never tell… Kaneki just shrugged it off as he took notice to a bandaged arm poking out of Hide's jacket. Putting his food down and taking hold of Hide's arm, he pulled the sleeve up to examine the bandaged appendage.

"Hide…Another fight? "He asked with an are you serious tone.

Hide nervously laughed. "Heh…Yea.. Nishio Sensei got angry at my childish games and did that."

"You need to stop. One of these days, he's going to kill you." Kaneki sighed.

"Nah! Nishio loves me." Hide was in denial.

"You are hopeless you know that?"

Kaneki gave Hide a worried smile then went back to eating. None the wiser to Hides cover. Hide had been nervous, but contained his composure. Not too long ago, his best friend went missing. He knew what had happened to him, but wasn't strong enough to help.

He would have gotten killed before he'd have reached his friend. Then, out of the blue after a year or so, Kaneki returned to this once abandoned dorm like nothing happened. Every day since, Hide has been a daily fixture to the dorm, and Kaneki was fine with that.

Hide had questions. Many questions, but was concerned it would hurt Kaneki and send him into a state of severe depression. Hide was staring at Kaneki in thought. This made Kaneki look curiously at the spaced out Hide.

"Hide. You alright?"

"Huh? Oh. Yea I'm fine Neki. Just remembering how lacking your apetite was after the transplant and how magnified it is from then."

"Really? You're weird you know."

"Yep! But I was concerned. And you changed your look too… But! I'm happy your back and doing ok." Hide gave a soft smile.

"Hide? Are you gay for me?" Kaneki gave him a questioning look.

"WHAT!? N-no! I'm just a concerned friend! Everyone was worried when you suddenly disappeared. *plop* Blood started to drip.

"I'm sorry I made you worry. You're the last person I wanted to do that to." A slight sadness was hinted.

"Ah it's alright. You're back now that's what matters Neki." Hide once again smiled. *plop, plop, plop* More blood started to drip.

Hide's arm started bleeding through the bandages. He noticed this and tried to stop the bleeding and hide it before Kaneki could notice. But it was too late; Kaneki noticed and grew panicked.

"Hide! Your arm!" Kaneki was clearly alarmed.

"It's no big deal Neki! I-I'l go take care of it."

Hide quickly rushed to the bathroom. He found more bandages and antibiotics. He quickly but gently removed the saturated bandages hissing in pain. Pausing for a moment to look at how badly damaged his arm was. How he couldn't feel the pain from skin and some muscle missing was a great mystery. While he started to re-bandage his wounds, he whispered to himself; Thank god he can't see- when Kaneki burst through severely concerned.

Kaneki's eyes went wide seeing the damage. He gently took up Hides arm and gingerly continued to bandage it. Hide was to shocked about Kaneki's reaction and actions to say or move.

"Hide! Why didn't you tell me..? Why didn't you tell me Nishio hurt you this badly?! I'm taking you to the hospital!"

"N-no! No neki… I'll be fine with these…" Hide protested.

"Then at least report this to the cops!" Kaneki grew even more concerned.

"I can't do that." Hide replied flatly.

"Wh-what? Why not? This, this could be considered attempted murder or something."

"I-I just cant Neki…"

"But" Kaeki paused but then looked serious. "Wait. Why can't you?"

Hide remained silent and avoided eye contact. Kaneki was finished bandaging his arm. Kaneki took Hides shoulders and shook him. He was VERY concerned about why Hide wouldn't do anything about this.

"HIDE! WHY NOT?! WHY WON'T GO TO THE HOSPITAL?! WHY WON'T YOU REPORT THIS?! WHY?!" Kaneki yelled.

"BECAUSE! NEKI!" Hide yelled back.

"Be-cause why Hideyoshi…? Why wont't you tell me..?" Kaneki was now talking in a low aggravated voice.

"Because…Nishio… Nishio didn't do this.." Hide was quiet.

"Then who…?" Kaneki was now pissed at this mystery person. "Who did this Hide? Whoever did this to you, I'm going to kill them."

Kaneki's emotions went from worried to pissed in an instant. He was so angry that someone would do something like this to his Hide. Sure Hide could be annoying; but Hide was a very good person who would do anything to help anyone. Hide was silent for a moment and once again avoided Kaneki's eyes.

"It was me…"

Hide was barely audible. Kaneki shook his head in disbelief thinking he heard wrong. So he lifted Hide's face to make him look.

"W-what?" he asked as calmly as he could.

"It was me, Neki"

Tears started to well up in Hides eyes having to tell the truth. Kaneki stumbled back in shock. Using the door frame to hold him up, he was trying to find the right words to use. There was an awkward silence between the two for what seemed like an hour when Hide finally began to speak.

" Kaneki. I'm so sorry…I'm sorry I couldn't save you when Jason tortured you.. I'm sorry I was so useless. But when Touka, the old man and everyone else returned, I thought you did too… So I went to the coffee shop and Touka told me you vanished..

I was so worried that something else had happened to you.. A year had gone by and you were still missing. I started my own detective work to find you and bring you home. And then out of nowhere, I ride by your dorm and see the lights on.. There you were, on the couch, reading like always. Like nothing happened, like nothing changed.

I was so happy you were finally home.. Kaneki, everyone. Everyone! Was worried about you! Me, Touka, that little girl who hangs with Touka, even Nishio! Were worried… I was just happy you were home..."

Hide paused to whip the ever flowing tears from his eyes. Kaneki just stared at him, words were unable to form from the shock processing in his brain. Tears slightly started to form. He had no idea Hide was THAT worried about him. Hide continued after he had calmed down a little.

"I Knew…I Knew what happened after you went on that damned date with Rize. I knew she'd been killed and you got her kidney. And then you started to change. But I did my research and found that she was a ghoul. And you. You got her organ which turned you into a ghoul."

"I let you have your space because, that. That had to be horrible. To go through that. I can't even imagine the torture of being turned into a ghoul would be. Then all this… All this horrible stuff happened to you. All because of this Rize chick.. I read up on how ghouls live and act and everything about them so that I could understand what you were living and how to be a better friend to you."

"I didn't want to be ignorant or anything. But I also wanted our friendship to stay the same. When I found out that ghouls could only eat human flesh, I was stuck on how to enjoy our favorite food together."

"I didn't want you to suffer and pretend to enjoy something that would make you sick… So… So I came up with this idea of just, using my own flesh to make burgers for you… I-I know its psychotic, but it was the only way I could think of. I'm not one who could get hold of a dead body, nor did I want to kill anyone."

"I just wanted us to be the best friends we were and enjoy the same things after you've been gone for so long. Kaneki, I just wanted to keep things as normal as I could… Im sorry…"

Kaneki sunk to the floor in complete and utter disbelief. He stared at Hide in a daze trying to find the right words to use. He then began to think back at all the times Hide had come over with burgers since he's been back. And then began to think of all the times Hide came over with bandaged wounds. He became amazed that Hide would go as far as hurting himself just so that he could provide some normalcy into his turned upside down life.

Kaneki then grew upset at the very same fact. He then stood up, went over to Hide and for a moment looked him in the eyes. Hides gaze shifted up and down unsure of what Kaneki was thinking. When Kaneki moved, he flinched thinking Kankei was angry and going to punch him. Instead, Kaneki pulled Hide into a tight hug.

"Thank you…Hide…I'm sorry I worried you so much. I'm sorry… But what were you thinking? Seriously? You know you could've died doing that you idiot."

"I know I could have. But that's why I had you on speed dial. Just in case. I just wanted to make your life as normal as it could be after everything. So if making burgers was one thing you could enjoy like we used to, then that's what I was going to do."

" Your difinately a moron. But I appreciate what you were doing. But now that I know, that's kinda gross and risky. Please don't do that anymore."

"I also kept your book collection up to date. Cuz I know how much you'd prefer reading rather than going out."

"Why didn't you just do that? And if you knew I was a ghoul and you knew about Anteiku, why didn't you just go there and ask for meat? They more than likely would have given you some seeing as they know you're my friend."

Hide and Kaneki were now walking to the hospital to properly get Hide's arm fixed. Hide couldn't help but laugh at the situation he put himself in. Kaneki gave him a concerned for his sanity smile but knew Hide's intentions were good. Crazy and insane but Good. That's Hide for you. When it came to his friends, Hide would do anything and everything he could to make things better.

*Ok If you haven't guessed it by now, and if you actually got through this short story, as bad as it's written, you should have found out the meaning of the title. But if you didn't, "Hamburger Helper, is the title for Hide's attempt at helping Kaneki to live as a normal life as he could. One of their things was eating burgers, so Hide thought that by recreating that scene would help.*