Scorpio (Tokyo Ghoul Touka x Male Reader)

Recovery

You reached for your water glass, your hand shaking with the strain. You made sure to keep your shoulder pressed against the wall though, so your body literally didn't fall apart. The strength needed to lift a glass of water seemed almost beyond you, as if it was made from solid rock.

With a supreme will of effort, you managed to raise it off the table and set it on your chest. It was easier to hold that way, craning your neck down to slip. Your left arm was completely useless, since the nerves had been separated by the sword swing. As such your brain couldn't send messages to your arm, it was practically detached at this point.

Your leg also was troubling you, since it meant you couldn't feel your toes at all. If you were a human you'd have been dead in the fight, never mind the week afterwards. But your gorge on the investigators had fired up your healing factor, kept you clinging to life.

Usually one adult human could keep a ghoul going for a month, but now you were eating on the daily. Each new piece of meat gave you enough strength to survive to tomorrow , each day you were just a little further from death. Most of the time you slept, doing what you could to regain your strength.

After your binge you'd stumbled into Anteiku, collapsing against the front door. Everyone's eyes turned towards you, today it was Mr. Yoshimura and Kaya who was working on duty. They were cleaning up, since there were no customers thankfully. "(Y/N)!" Kaya yelled in shock, running to catch you as you collapsed.

"Ayato, doves came looking for him. I managed to beat them back." You struggled to talk, your lungs struggling to take in oxygen.

"Did they see your faces?" Yoshimura asked with a serious expression.

"No, witnesses." You told them, they just nodded in understanding. It has been a real strain to drag you back home, they had wanted to call your mother but you refused to let them. "Let her and Touka enjoy their time together, if I were them I'd want to enjoy what time I had before the world came crashing AAAAAAAAAA!" You cried.

You'd been upstairs when heard your mother come home, she'd been laughing with Touka about something. You felt guilty suddenly, seeing as you were about to be the subject of grief. You knew that Mr. Yoshimura was down stairs, ready to break the bed news.

Your mother had handled it well, she surprised you as you'd been expecting a flood of incoherent mumbling behind the tears, but she was well composed as she kneeled down to kiss your head gently.

"Stay strong (Y/N), stay strong."

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You were finally up and about after a full month, school was almost starting again. You had one week to pass as being healthy again, or you'd be in trouble. People would begin getting suspicious soon, or at least smart people would. You hadn't worked at Anteiku for a while for obvious reasons, but if you were out of commission much longer people would question why you hadn't been to hospital. Of course if you went to one you'd be recognised as a ghoul due to the fact that you were still alive after such horrific injuries.

Your mother was out on her shift, while Ayato couldn't seem to get far enough away from you. He looked guilty as sin, he obvious blamed himself for your condition. It wasn't hard to see why, if he hadn't lost his temper at the child you wouldn't have had to engage the doves. So you wouldn't have been so badly hurt.

"You should be in bed." Touka told you sternly, placing her hands on her hips. She seemed to have become some sort of prison guard recently since you started moving around again, though she had become as distant as possible from you since the incident.

"I've had enough of lying in there, I'm stretching my legs around." You told her without a hint of compromise, although you seemed to lack the authority you used to.

"Don't be an idiot, you need rest."

"I've rested for a month, if I don't do something soon I'll go insane." You hobbled over to the sink, seeing a stack of plates that hadn't been cleaned yet.

"(Y/N)..."

"You can't stop me Touka!" You told her raising your voice for the first time, you let slip your repressed rage a small bit as you gave a fearsome snarl at her. She seemed taken back a little at first, then she sighed and calmed down. Truth was you weren't angry at her, well not much anyway, you couldn't deny you were annoyed by her distantness these last few weeks. But you were angry at yourself, how weak you were, how vulnerable you felt.

"(Y/N), I'm sorry ok. Let me at least give you a hand, I'll dry them for you when you've washed it." She mentioned, standing besides you on the right. Her warm body was against yours, something you weren't used to. You didn't mention anything though, silently consenting to the assistance.

"How's Ayato." You asked her as you stated your work, leaning on the counter more then you would like.

"I don't know, he's really beat up over what happened. He obviously blames himself, but he doesn't say anything to anyone anymore."

"Well don't let him pick up any of my bad habits, just cause I like being on my own doesn't mean it's for everyone."

"He looks up to you, in some ways your like a brother to him, almost like caring father."

"I've been called a lot of things Touka, caring was never one of them." You reminded her.

"Alright then, a stern father then. It's funny how quickly you've become like family, you've taken us in and given us everything."

"Yeah well thank the manager and my mother, they were the ones who took you in not me." Touka suddenly looked up at you sadly, her deep blue eyes stared into your pale ones. They were empty of all anger or annoyance, only a deep sadness, not for her, but for you.

"Why do you do that? Try and paint yourself as some kind of uncaring recluse, you can be so stupid (Y/N). Your my friends damn it. Why do you always act like no one means anything to you, I know you care about us." For the first time, you couldn't meet her eye. You paused from washing the dishes and stared blankly at the wall, you couldn't answer her. "Why did you save Ayato, answer me that. Tell me why you risked your life for him."

"Because I..." You paused to search for the words. "Because I wasn't going to let someone I care about die, there you happy now? I care about your and Ayato." You huffed, not sure what to say.

"Thank you, I care about you too (Y/N)." Touka told you, leaning in and kissing you lightly on the cheek. You looked at her surprised, seeing she was blushing slightly with a small embarrassed smile. You both looked away, not sure how to continue from here.

"You know, maybe we could..." You stuttered a small bit when you finally got your words together. "Go to a movie, or dinner, or something?" You asked nervously.

"I'd like that." She nodded.