The Pirate & The Princess [KaneTou]

11

Laying in bed one night, Touka rested on her side and so did Kaneki. They face one another, with her blue eyes looking into his grey ones and she moved to caress his cheek and then buried her fingers in his hair. His hands moved from her arm, down the curves of her body before stopping on her waist. 

"So...we're finally dating. Never thought I'd fall in love with the person who kidnapped me." Touka said, laughing.

He let out a chuckle, nuzzling his nose against hers before leaning down for a kiss. She returned the kiss with fervor and they pulled back. "Never thought I'd do so the same, falling in love with a stubborn princess." He joked, earning a hit on his chest by her.

"Not funny. Hey, where have you been sleeping? Since we're dating, I don't mind if you sleep here with me.." She mumbled the last sentence, cheeks burning red at it. He felt his own warm as well, thinking about how nice it would be sleeping here in his own bed, with her in his arms and him in her arms. Oh, how he wished to do that. But he couldn't. He didn't want to risk his secret.

"I don't sleep. I only take naps."

Her brows furrowed. "Why?"

"I got to keep an eye on where the ship's going and sometimes I need to steer the ship." He lied, putting a hand on his chin.

"But you have your crew to do that for you. I rarely even see you do things around the ship." Her eyes narrowed. "Is there something you're not telling me? We're dating now, so you can tell me stuff."

He sighed. As he thought, he was shit at lying. "I'm sorry. I'm just not comfortable telling you everything about me yet. There are certain things that I don't want you to know. Please just settle with that." He said, burying his face in her hair and pressed a kiss there.

Touka frowned. "But—"

He pulled back with a scowl. "I said drop it."

She was upset because she thought they had gotten closer now that they're lovers but the distance between only seem to get wider. She wants to help him, but he won't let her. For now, she'll be content with knowing only parts of him and will be there for him when he's ready to tell her. They've come so far, finally got together and she didn't want to ruin that by insisting in on him telling something he's not comfortable about. 

"..okay. I'm sorry for prying. If you ever want to tell me, just know that I'll be listening."

"I'm sorry too for snapping at you. And thank you." 

Kaneki waited until she fell asleep before pulling away from her and out of bed. Looking back at her one last time, he smiled and closed the door behind him. He would not let his frequent nightmares disturb her sleep.

The next morning, Touka joined Kaneki on the deck again. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against a huge wooden box and he smiled up at her. That handsome smile of his never failed to make her heart flutter. Ever since they started dating, he's been smiling more often and she loves that. "Morning. Did you have a good nights sleep?"

"I did, thank you." She frowned when she saw the large eye circles under his eyes. How had she never noticed them before? Those couldn't have formed after only one night. It takes several nights or weeks to form those huge eye circles. Though she's worried about his health, she'll keep her mouth shut about it until he wants to tell her.

She took the hand he held out, and he pulled her down to the floor with her sitting in between his legs. His arms go around her waist and he rested his chin on one shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't stay the night."

"No, it's alright. I understand you have your reasons."

One of his hands moved to rest over hers, intertwining their fingers together and he squeezed her hand. "Thank you. We'll drop by a small town today and will be staying a few nights. You can do some shopping first and then I'll bring you somewhere to explain why we're stealing treasures from countries."

She opened her mouth to ask why he couldn't tell her now, but stopped and settled on jokes instead. "Ahh, finally! I was starting to wonder if I was going to stay in the same underwear forever!"

His eyes crinkled as he looked down at her with a grin and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll let you buy new dresses so buy some nice underwear for me to see, yeah?"

Her cheeks turned tomato red. "You pervert!"