It's been too long since I updated. Not going to lie, my muse for it died for a while. But I am slowly getting it back! I apologize with this chapter being shorter than the others, but I'll be sure to make it longer for the next one.

Her red eyes were very ghoulish indeed.

Tsukiyama had taken notice of the female Kaneki held onto so tightly as he guided them toward a property his family owned. The-rather modest, to the purple-haired ghoul's taste-two-story townhouse had been vacant for quite some time. It was perfect the two to hide out in while they accomplished what they needed to.

Tsukiyama was already quite aware of Kaneki's infatuation with the ruby-eyed brunette, but something about her definitely unnerved him. She appeared human, yet even by human standards, something was utterly off, especially when it came to her relationship to Kaneki.

It was as though Kaneki was grasping tightly to a dying, blood-red rose so that the thorns would remain buried deep into his skin. That was the aura Tsukiyama had received from the young woman, something that wasn't sitting right with him. He could definitely see the girl was absolutely enamored with the half-ghoul who was embracing her so; however, there was a heavy resignation that her petals would scatter, her life fleeting. Tsukiyama vaguely wondered what left of Kaneki's psyche would be shattered when the white-haired male's precious flower faded when her time came.

"Is this better?" Kaneki's question to the young woman broke Tsukiyama out of his silent observations as the younger male set the girl on the bed in one of the three bedrooms the house had. The girl nodded and her eyes flickered to Tsukiyama briefly, as though she were keeping the ghoul at a distance with her gaze. She didn't trust him, which was just as well; Tsukiyama had partook in the ghoul restaurant settings and a young woman like her would have been a delicacy whose succulent flesh he would sup.

"Go ahead and rest, okay?" Kaneki told her, his fingers threading through the girl's hair. "I need to talk to Tsukiyama about something, but you're safe."

"I'll be fine, Kaneki. You don't need to baby me," the girl replied lightly, though she leaned into Kaneki's touch as though she were a moth drawn to a flame. The girl must not know how being a mate of a ghoul worked, Tsukiyama considered. Neither does Kaneki, now that he thought of it.

The white-haired ghoul smiled at the brunette before he stepped away from the bed, allowing the girl to lay down. Even though she was still wide awake, Tsukiyama followed Kaneki out-no doubt to have some sort of privacy about whatever needed to be discussed. When the two male ghouls left the room and gave some distance between themselves and the door, Tsukiyama then spoke. "You have been quite invested in the young mademoiselle, Kaneki. You haven't lost sight of your goals, have you?"

"Of course not," replied Kaneki, his grey eyes narrowed in contemplation. He truly was delectable, a sublime dish. "That girl is very important to me. I care about her, but she's in a place where she is unsure of her own identity."

"Unsure of her identity? She is a human, oui?"

"That's what she had always thought. What I always thought."

"The questions have begun after we went to take the girl from the clutches of death."

Kaneki's brows furrowed as he lifted a fist partway from his side. "Hanami has...endured so much because of me. If I left her alone, she wouldn't be questioning herself. She would be at school, living like she normally has up to now. I didn't-couldn't leave her alone. If I hadn't taken her, she would live freely like she is supposed to," he murmured.

"So then, dear Kaneki, why did you take her?" asked Tsukiyama, his arms crossed over his chest.

Kaneki lowered his fist back to his side, grinding his teeth together. "Because I'm selfish."

Selfishness. Kaneki had taken the girl purely out of selfishness. He had reached forward to snatch the flower that linked the person he was now to the person he had been in the past. The timid and meek Kaneki Ken no longer existed in the same space and breath as Makine Hanami. After Kaneki turned into a ghoul after the life-altering encounter with Rize, he made his decision to stay away from the ones he was close to for their sake. He didn't want to risk Hanami's safety, but he couldn't help himself. He had to clutch the delicate flower to have some semblance of hope, a sense of belonging. He needed to feel that he hadn't changed, that his place in the endless cycle that was her life was not threatened despite how different he was. Part of Kaneki knew that remaining stagnant was not something to aspire to, but was it wrong to just stay still, to leave the ones he clung to in the hopes they will remain when he returned?

After all, even with Hanami questioning herself, she remained the same.

But was she really?

Hanami's petals, those luminescent petals that exuded innocence, were now stained by his bloodied longer Kaneki held her, the more wilted she became.

Wasn't this how flowers die?

The paper was fragile in her hands.

Before leaving the house, Hanami had taken some of the letters her father had written to her mother with her. She had skimmed them, reread thoroughly, skimmed again in a rinse-lather-repeat cycle since Kaneki had walked off to talk with Tsukiyama. Kaneki likely would have told her not to focus on the letters and whatever was between her mother and father. However…

Her mother was human. After Hanami was born, the brunette's father was never mentioned, but her mother must have been wounded to not see him again. Whatever happened to break her once-kind mother when the ruby-eyed girl was born, it only served to etch a monster inside of Hanami's memory for a mere fraction of her existence.

What was her existence? She only knew of one half of it. What was the other half? Who was the other half that created her? Was it normal not to know? She had been so blindly content to know that part of her-the part of her that loved and hated her mother-would forever be part of her story. She wasn't seeking to know the other half, but now, after all of this…

Her world had been torn asunder when Kaneki came back into her life. Hanami remembered existing as just a Kamii student who had loved him from afar. With the chaos of their reunion, the brunette would have never thought that they were supposed to walk into the same unknown. Kaneki was thrust onto that path much faster, walking ahead of her until he looked back. Until he reached back for her, bloodied hand outstretched and Hanami had taken it, her hand no cleaner than his.

Hanami folded the letter close, sliding it back into the envelope. She had no room to doubt the possibility of the ghoul that had saved her all those years ago being her father. If she closed her eyes, allowed herself to fall back into that memory, maybe she could see him…

But all she could remember were the red eyes, the shaking hand that had touched her face as her small body lay where her mother was prepared to end her life, the voice telling her she was safe and that she wouldn't be hurt anymore. Yet why hadn't he sought her out again? If she was the daughter of that ghoul, whomever he was, wouldn't he have wanted contact with her? Or was he content to let her live in blissful ignorance of her identity?

"Hana?"

The call of her name roused her from her thoughts and her ruby irises rose to find Kaneki at the threshold of the bedroom door. He stretched out a hand, palm turned toward the sky, beckoning her. Hanami pushed herself off of the bed, her feet gently touching the floor. Kaneki hadn't let her walk much ever since her leg was snapped clean at the ghoul restaurant, but if any part of their questions were to be answered with what she was, the distance between the bed and the door was a start.

There wasn't any pain when Hanami put her weight on her leg. The makeshift bandage and splint only seemed cumbersome now as Hanami stepped forward, step by step. The bandages seemed to loosen even as she drew closer to Kaneki, whose grey eyes were fixed on Hanami, the faintest ghost of a smile touching his lips-here, then gone. Hanami's hand rose, her fingertips ghosting against Kaneki's before they curled together, a familiar sense of a strangely chaotic stability coursing between them. Hanami glanced back, to see the bandages and splint had fallen from her leg and onto the floor.

No pain. Her leg had healed as though it had never been broken.

Just like that.

The brunette's expression changed then and Kaneki had noticed it. Hanami's face was devoid of any emotion, almost as though she had expected this outcome. The white-haired male wondered what expectations she weighed walking to him had set on her consciousness, a weight that seemed to only grow in the absence of words. Hanami's fingers slowly slipped from Kaneki's, keeping her eyes away from him. "I think I may need that rest after all," she murmured at last, her words barely hanging in the air as soon as they left her lips.

Was she scared? There was not even the slightest tremor for Kaneki to believe otherwise and yet, he wasn't sure what was running through Hanami's head at this precise moment. "Talk to me, Hanami," he told her, reaching to take her hand again. They had discussed this before, hadn't they? Whatever they found out about Hanami's parentage, Kaneki would always accept her. That sentiment would never change going forward.

"There's still a lot I don't know, Kaneki. My body seems to heal like a ghoul, but everything else about me is…" Hanami trailed off, crimson irises turning to clash with steel. There was an abundance of confusion in her eyes, and the slightest trace of fear. Kaneki gently pulled Hanami closer to him. "You don't have anything to be scared of," he murmured in response. "I'm here with you. You won't be alone through this."

Hanami nodded and Kaneki brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek, watching as she leaned into his touch. He was reassuring not just his flower, but himself; they both had each other, Hanami more alone than Kaneki was and yet-

He just hoped that the chaotic storm will finally settle, so they could live their life in peace.

The mask was a delicate piece of work, much like the brunette Kaneki had described to Uta. It was unlike the Eyepatch mask, which had become Kaneki's moniker with the CCG agents who wanted to apprehend him and other ghouls alike. The red trim along the black leather would accentuate the girl's eyes-that part of the mask was going to be covered by a see-through mesh. However, her face was be covered, from the circlet that would wrap around the girl's forehead, the leather covering the nose, mouth, and curvature of the cheeks.

Kaneki's flower definitely scented of human, but she was a strange mixture of something else. It the similar to the scent of a ghoul, but it was more weak. Sickening even. As though her blood was diseased. It was the scent of poisoned flowers, something doomed to rot soon after it truly blooms.

"It looks like you made the face of a wasp." Himeko peered over Uta's shoulder, a smile on her lips. "It really would bring out her eyes."

"Wasp would be a suitable name for her, wouldn't it? I wonder if the CCG will call her that."

"They'd have to see her in the mask first."

"Very true, princess. Where have you been, by the way?"

"I went to drop of a little something important. It might bring the show to its finale." Uta could hear the laughter in Himeko's voice despite the female's voice barely even doing so. Such an odd little thing his princess was, often doing whatever she liked-either for herself or for him. "It may be what they want to find out."

"You know something I don't?" Uta hardly sounded offended as he worked on the mask.

"You'll see. What's the fun in ruining the surprise?" Himeko reached down toward the bottom of the mask, where it would button at the neck. "You should put a rose here."

"Any particular reason why?"

"She's like a rotting one already, even if she doesn't know it. Best to show it, don't you think?"

"I adore the way you think."

When Himeko drew away, she occupied the seat beside Uta as he added the finishing touches to the mask. Soon Kaneki and his little flower were going to return to pick up the masterpiece in its completion.

And, perhaps, he would see firsthand what the little human was truly capable of.