Black Water | Tokyo Ghoul

Chapter 28: Complications

CHAPTER 28:

When Rin woke up, someone was gently fastening the wrapped linen around his torso. He took in a deep breath and realized the room smelled familiarly of citrus. He inwardly smiled. 

The last time he smelled citrus, he woke up in Amon's bed, warm and safe. Now, the scent had been ingrained in his mental list of favorite things to keep in his own house. Carefully, Rin opened his eyes.

The usual features of his own apartment greeted him with the touch of a bright artificial light that said it was already dark outside.

Already? Or still? How long had he been sleeping?

Regardless of the slight worry for his own health and the damage the Bin brothers had raked through his body, he was still snug in a comfortable bed, safe. Most importantly, Amon was safe too.

Seeing the large and robust man sitting next to him, with shoulders hunched and eyes tight with focus on the mission of wrapping the alcohol-soaked linen around Rin's arm definitely wasn't what Rin was expecting. Rin tried to stop thinking about how close and gentle Amon was. There was no helping what kind of annoying laugh the human would unleash if he saw the way Rin's cheeks went hot with a stupid, childish joy.

A man as large and robust as he sat next to Rin, shoulders hunched and eyes bright with a tight focus as he gently wrapped an alcohol-soaked piece of linen around Rin's arm, treating his limb as if the light skin on it was actually thin paper. There were more of the wounds now, Rin realized, from their fight with the Bin brothers and even without looking, Rin could feel the sting of scars that would take hours to heal. Rin didn't really realize that his eyes had been quietly staring at Amon's features until the corner of Amon's mouth slightly curled up.

"Do you always stare at me like such a hound?" Amon looked up then, a warm and mischievous glint in his brown eyes.

Rin instantly felt the blush on his cheeks. He had to think of some excuse, fast.

"You're wrapping is all wrong. At this rate, I might bleed to death."

The look of horror instantly paled Amon's face.

Rin laughed and carefully sat up. "just kidding." Gingerly, he took the linen from Amon's hands and started wrapping himself up. Amon was doing well staying quiet next to him until,

"Did I really do it all wrong?"

Rin quietly laughed, "I was joking."

"Then why are you doing it yourself, then?"

Rin scoffed at that. He remembered all the nights he spent sprawled on his kitchen floor, sometimes cursing to the high heavens about a minor, inconvenient scar from a harmless bar fight, and sometimes biting down hot tears as he struggled to do a proper tourniquet to stop the flow of blood from whatever injury another cannibal ghoul inflicted on him.

The situations of bleeding were all different. The one constant was that he was always sitting on the floor, angry and alone.

He didn't even realize he said all of this out loud until Amon loudly sighed and carefully pulled Rin's arm towards his body and instantly took over the first aid session.

"It's time you get used to me helping out then." He said and looked up at Rin with a smile before he continued wrapping Rin's arm.

Rin silently watched him, feeling the pained expression on his own face. Did Amon tie the linen around his torso too tightly? Rin tried to breathe through the sudden tightness that wrapped around his heart like a snake. He wasn't used to this kind of Amon. To this kind of human. No, to this kind of tenderness. Not even Jin treated him like this.