Stitching Our Hearts Together

Chapter 2: Stitches

Juuzou's eyes widened as he took in Uta's shop. There were so many masks everywhere, each one looking absolutely unique and just plain cool. His mouth dropped open in awe as his eyes darted from wall to wall. Uta looked over at his expression, finding himself pleased from seeing his reaction. He was glad Juuzou seemed to be taking enjoyment in seeing his works of art. He was even more pleased when the corners of Juuzou's agape mouth turned upward until he was smiling bigger than Uta had ever seen anyone smile before. Seeing the stitched boy's grin made it admittedly hard for Uta not to smile himself. It was only a moment before he gave in, letting his own lips turn upward on his face.

Juuzou spread his arms out wide before running over to one of the walls of the shop. "Oh wow!" Juuzou exclaimed as he stepped up onto a shelf near the wall and reached his arm up high. He grabbed a mask from as far up as he could reach. It was a half red and half white one with a large star covering one of the eyes. He jumped down and put it over his face. He shrieked with laughter. "What do you think, Uta? Does it suit me? I could totally pass as a ghoul!" He joked. "Not that I would waannnt too. Well, unless I was infiltrating to take out a bunch of yoooou." The shop was filled with his excited laughter once again.

Uta bent his elbows with his hands out flat, shrugging his shoulders. "No. I'm sorry, Juuzou, but you couldn't." He shook his head. "You just smell way too good to be a ghoul." He walked over to Juuzou who was now tilting his head to the side while his expression was hidden underneath the mask. Uta enjoyed how the smell intensified the closer he'd gotten to the other male. He began adjusting the mask on Juuzou's face before taking a step back. A hand went to his chin and he scratched it. "I like it, but if you were ever going to wear a mask I'd definitely want to make you a more personal one. Something more whimsical to better suit your personality." Ideas began fluttering through his head, and Uta kind of wished he could make him a mask. "And I'd want to include the stitches. They're cute." Stitches on a mask would look no where as cute as they did on the boy's flesh, but they would still be flattering.

Juuzou took the mask off and tossed it onto the shelf next to him. There was a slight gap in his mouth as he stared at Uta in confusion for a moment. He hadn't called his stitched cool or disgusting or any other term for that matter. He'd called them cute which was something Juuzou hadn't heard before when it came to his own art work. He felt an odd feeling inside of his chest, one that might be best described as slight sickness, but it was almost a good kind of sickness. His words also seemed to make his chest rise up and down a little bit faster than normal. He could hear his own quiet breathing more clearly than normal. Maybe it was just because Uta was such an attractive looking man that he'd had such a small thing effect him more than he was sure it would have if someone else had said it.

A flicker of confusion appeared in Uta's own dark eyes as he scanned over the features of Juuzou's face, now blank even though it'd just been illuminated by laughter. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked, and Juuzou just stared blankly at him for a few seconds longer. Uta waited patiently in curiosity for him to respond.

Juuzou seemed to decide another smile was the best way to go about finding his own normalcy once more after his moment of uncertainty, because another one finally replaced his blank look. It was smaller than his last smile, but Uta still appreciated the sight of it. "Nooothing at all." Juuzou chuckled, and skipped past Uta to the back of his shop. "Well what ever shall we do now?" He laughed in a way that sounded nervous and unsure, but really Juuzou had already gotten over that feeling as far as he was concerned. The almost awkward laugh must have just been a lingering after effect.

"How about we go up to my apartment for some coffee?" Uta wasn't even sure if he drank coffee, but it's not like it would kill him to offer it up. It was really just an excuse to get to sit with the male that had caught his interest at first sight.

"Sounds delightful!" Juuzou responded before starting to hum to himself as he looked over all the masks that the back of the shop had to offer.

"Wonderful." Uta walked back toward Juuzou and then took a turn to head toward the stairs that would lead them to their destination. "It's this way." He waved a hand and beckoned Juuzou to follow him.

"Right away, Mr. Ghoul!" Juuzou's lips stretched into a smile that seemed to over take his whole face as he skipped after Uta and began to hum to himself once again, eyes still darting all over to the place to take in all of the different masks on the walls. Uta probably knew the identities of a lot of the code named ghouls the CCG had been looking for. Maybe he'd tell him a few if they fought later, though he probably should have been doubting that. Juuzou would've loved to satisfy his curiosity about who certain ghouls actually happened to be just to be able to say that he knew before the other's did.