Summary: Kaneki has finally lost himself, and Hide is left to pick up the pieces.

A/N: This is based off of one of my favorite songs by Daughtry, "September". It's heavy with angst, so I hope you still can enjoy it. Like always, I'm my own Beta, so there may be mistakes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul.

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They kept him chained up like an animal in order to prevent him from hurting other living beings, or possibly himself. But he still found away around the latter. Every day it seemed as if another scratch mark had etched its way into his bruised skin, or that his white scrubs had been torn or stained with spots of rusting blood.

He'd lost more color than ever, if that was even possible, and time and near starvation had traded his muscular body for a thin, tiny frail one. Hide assumed that had his hair been dark once more, that it would have turned a deathly white due to the conditions he'd been forced to live through. But someone else had already beaten the CCG to that.

Hide supposed he should be somewhat grateful.

The CCG was the only reason he was still alive, though "alive" wasn't the correct term anymore, was it? Dead alive was more like it. Because while Kaneki's ghoulish body was still alive, keeping him aware and living like some broken train huffing with a wheeze "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can..." his soul, however, had fluttered away the minute that Amon had been unable to kill him, and instead had decided to take him to HQ.

"At least you can see him whenever you like," Mado had tried her best to add a light sense of humor to the gloomy moment, but the way she utilized her tone when speaking of Kaneki made the ghoul seem like some sort of feral, rabid animal. It did little to alleviate Hide's unease.

And now, as Hide walked into his white padded room with the nimbleness of a butterfly, he supposed that Kaneki had become some sort of feral, rabid animal. His eyes found the sickly figure in the corner of the room.

What he'd been doing in the corner of the room before, Hide wasn't entirely sure, but he had been turned away, crouched on the ground and mumbling something to himself.

Upon Hide's slow entrance, the mumbling had stopped and the body had become incredibly stiff. The keys dangled on Hide's waste, and a plastic bag crunched on his side as he continued to walk into the room.

"Hey Kaneki! What's up, I brought you something," Hide stopped and knelt to the ground, slowly and cautiously, "Come on, you'll like it!"

The ghoul turned one red eye at the blond, and with shared caution , began to crawl towards Hide. Blood stained his clothing, and Hide could see areas around his arm where he'd torn at the flesh. Remind Amon that he needs to be cleaned and some fed later, Hide told himself.

The chains around his hand and feet clanged against one another as he crawled, and to ease his actions, Hide tossed the plastic back towards him.

Hooded eyes looked wearily at the blond, than back down at the bag. Boney hands reached into the plastic, and slowly, pulled out the thick, rectangular object.

Hide held his breath while anticipation welled up within him.

The ghoul traced his dark finger nailed hands over the geometric object. It opened with a crack that all new books had about them whenever they were first opened. Delicately, he turned the pages with the tips of his fingers, looking at the words, and for a split second, Hide believed that Kaneki was soaking them in.

However, his hopes were quickly crushed when the ghoul turned towards him with a hungry look in his eyes.

"F..food" He whispered as the book fell to the ground and was promptly stepped over, "Food!"

"No man! I'm not food," Hide tried to sound optimistic, tried to make it seem like his friend mistaking him for a juicy steak was an accident, but the sadness and anger associated with the moment was very hard to push back, "It's me, Hide! Your best friend."
And now Kaneki was on his two feet, stumbling,but moving at an incredibly fast rate towards Hide.

But the chains yanked at his limbs, they stopped him from going any further, and unfortunately gave him an opportunity to think logically.

It was as if something clicked in his brain.

"H-Hide isn't f-food!" It was a painful wail that bounced off of the walls, and tore itself into Hide's brain like white hot blades stabbing into tender flesh. It hurt. "He's a friend! He's my friend!"
He buried his hands in his white hair and tugged at the thin strands. Calming the ghoul could get Hide bitten, the dull marks on his arm remained a perfect reminder of just what Kaneki was capable of.

So unfortunately, he watched as Kaneki's fingers ripped at white locks of his hair.

As quickly as the self mutilation began, it ended.

With inhuman speed, the ghoul had maneuvered itself back into the corner of the room, wailing to itself, and rocking back and forth.

Hide stood and walked over to the book. He opened the pages and began to read aloud.

"When he woke, he was no longer one with the physical realm, rather..."

As he read, the wailing stopped, and the rocking ceased completely. Hide had gotten too deep into the book to realize that his friend had fallen asleep at the sound of his soothing voice at, and though the book grew incredibly morbid and freaking depressing, he willed himself to continue until he was certain that his friend had fallen into a steady, uneventful sleep.

This is how it had been for a year, and honestly, as long as Kaneki was being fed and cared for, Hide didn't mind. Kaneki didn't want any of this power or insanity, he wanted to die after he nearly got eaten by Rize. But things went for too long, and it had destroyed him. At least here, he was safe.

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I'm working on a new chapter of Helping Hand, but I wanted to get this idea out. Depending on the feedback, i'll either continue or leave it like this. I love TG, and I'm planning on writing a lot more. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, have a wonderful week and God bless!