Hiraeth (A HideKane/ KaneHide multichapter fic)

Chapter 12

I do not own this story. It is written by Aellia on FanFiction.net. All credits go to her.

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It had been nearly two months since the raid on Anteiku. Hide and Kaneki, along with Hinami, Banjou, and his friends, had been staying in their shared home for that period of time. At first, it had just been Hide and Kaneki, but the group decided to regroup there one night and found them playing a card game with each other on the kitchen table. Playing games took the edge off of things; it helped to calm everyone's anxious minds. They tried to do it as often as they could, which was pretty often. It's not like anyone had anywhere to be.

Tsukiyama's whereabouts were unknown.

Kaneki, for a period of time, seemed lost. Hide found himself bringing his friend back to reality more and more often, and frankly, it was starting to worry him. He was afraid Kaneki was going to relapse once again, and Hide promised himself not to let that happen.

One good thing that he noticed, though, was that he was getting more sleep lately, which was definitely a sign of improvement. For a while after the attack, Kaneki hardly slept, and when he did, he tossed and turned, plagued by constant nightmares. Hide had been awoken in the middle of the night on multiple occasions-all of which Kaneki apologized for later-by his bedmate's thrashing. He would then spend up to an hour consoling him until they both fell back asleep, and the cycle would repeat. But, thankfully, the nightmares seemed to dissipate with time, as he stopped flailing in his sleep and the bags under his eyes slowly disappeared. Hide hadn't been awakened in over two and a half weeks.

Consistent training continued to help his body get into shape. Hide nearly cried with joy when he took his shirt off one day and, for the first time, noticed the outline of abs on his stomach. He immediately showed them to Kaneki, who in turn took off his shirt and revealed his extremely toned body. "Well, we can't all be as perfect as you, Kaneki," Hide teased.

No matter how much he teased, though, he couldn't deny that Kaneki's body was a definite turn on. And Kaneki freaking knew it.

Pushing thoughts of a shirtless Kaneki out of his mind, Hide focused on preparing coffee for everyone that morning. Normally, Kaneki would do it, but he was still sleeping, and Hide felt no obligation to wake him from his much needed rest. They'd used all their good quality coffee, so he was forced to brew instant. Not that he would have gone for the good stuff anyways-there was no doubt that he sucked at making it. Instant was more his style.

After the coffee was made, he made his way to the small sitting area and handed a cup to Hinami and Banjou, who occupied it. Sitting down, he sipped from his own cup, noting the huge difference between his and Kaneki's coffee. Nonetheless, Hinami and Banjou drank it with no complaints.

"Hide-onii-san," Hinami began, her tone more solemn and lacking its usual peppiness. She set down her coffee. "When are things going to go back to normal?"

Hide offered her a small smile. "I don't know, Hinami. All we can do is hope for the best." He sighed into his cup before placing it down on the table in between the two couches.

"How's Kaneki doing?" Banjou asked.

"I can tell he's getting better," Hide replied. "He's getting more sleep and isn't spacing out as much."