Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 1 ~ The Hunger

     Tiredly, the boy hauled his backpack higher onto his hunched shoulders and flicked his hair away from his eyes. The chocolate brown coloured strands constantly tickled his eyelids, he'd need to have it trimmed soon, the boy decided. The waves clung to the back of his neck, brushing only just against the collar of his school shirt.

    Speaking of shirts, he groaned quietly in annoyance, pulling his green tie loose and opening the top two buttons, wafting his collar back and forth to try and create some kind of draft. He was still stood just inside the doorway of the school, watching everyone else file out, down the road, a sea of monochrome uniforms and umbrellas.

     Despite the showering rain, it was still humid and sticky, and it aggravated the boy to no end. He waited a few moments more before realizing the rain had no intentions of letting up any times soon, and glumly made his way to join the flow of the other students, and he tried to tuck himself deeper down into his blazer, but it made no difference as he still ended up rather wet.

      His hair became floppier than usual, and the tips dripped water down into his dull olive coloured eyes. He silently cursed over and over again, why hadn't he brought an umbrella?

     "Dylan! Heeey!" A loud yell made heads turn and glance around, finally making them look up from the water stained concrete. The boy's face flushed in embarrassment and he quickly caught sight of his friend, waving and grinning like the rain didn't bother him at all.  He quickly wove towards him in the hopes of avoiding any more attention.

   "Hey, Hide." Dylan greeted, and the two huddled under the small red and white striped veranda outside a quiet bakery. "What's new?"

    "Nothing much." Hide gave a half shrug, but the barely hidden grin and mischievous glint in his eye gave him away. "Except that Kaneki finally has a crush on this girl."

    Hide's grin was wide and excited, seemingly overjoyed for his introverted friend. Dylan wasn't sure if Hide expected him to equally enthusiastic, but he supposed he was pleased for this 'Kaneki' boy.

     "You know, I still haven't-"

     "Oh, that's right!" Hide said, his face suddenly becoming gravely determined. He snapped his fingers and pointed at Dylan, who flinched back slightly. "You still haven't met Kaneki, have you?"

    "Nope." Dylan gave an uncertain chuckle, and pulled at his shirt slightly. It was damp but beginning to dry and stick to him, he couldn't wait to peel it off and change into something much more comfortable.

    "Kaneki always goes to this weird little café, they do great coffee, you could totally meet him then!" Hide said enthusiastically and Dylan visibly grimaced.

   "I hate coffee..." He muttered in disgust. "I go for sweet things. Speaking of which...." Dylan trailed away as his stomach grumbled, and Hide just looked up in thought, his eyes searching around him as if he could pull whatever answer he was looking for from the rain-flanked sky above him.

    "Hey, I know this one place, they do amazing sweets.... Dammit, what's it called?!" Hide yelled out in frustration. He closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead. All this thinking must be giving him a headache, Dylan decided, it's probably the most thinking Hide's done all day. "Cat's Cradle!"

    "...What?" Dylan raised an eyebrow at Hide's sudden outburst, and shrunk back into his blazer when he friend drew even more strange looks from passers by.

    "That sweets place, it's called Cat's Cradle!" Hide said enthusiastically, seemingly impressed at his own memory.

    "What a weird name..." Dylan murmured sceptically. "I feel like that's where the drug lords hang out..."

   "Dude!" Hide exclaimed in annoyance and rolled his eyes, giving Dylan a shove down the path. "Just go check it out, follow the brook until you get to the plaza, you can't miss it!"

    "Aren't you coming?" Dylan questioned, frowning. He wasn't so keen on tackling the brook and a new place all alone. He scarcely went new places alone, and he absolutely refused to traverse the brook alone.

    "Nah, not today, I need to meet someone- speaking of which, -Hey! Nishiki!" Hide yelled and another guy in the crowd turned in annoyance. With that Hide threw a wave towards Dylan and wove off through the crowd, leaving Dylan standing there like a spare part and he grumbled to himself in annoyance.

    Like hell I'm going there myself, Dylan argued with himself, no way. He looked down and frowned in annoyance as him stomach grumbled. His mind wandered to his favourite cake; strawberry sauce, topped up with whipped cream and melted chocolate.... His stomach grumbled again.

    "Dammit, Hide..." He hissed, and turned towards the brook.

~