For When Your Heart is Broken

7: Rock, Paper, S- Hey, Let Me Borrow This

     When he had finished reading, Kaneki gave a sharp sigh and closed his eyes for a couple of minutes. He didn't possess the strength to move for a long while afterwards.
"What the hell have I been doing for all this time?" He asked the empty room around him.
He hadn't realised it until now how frequently Tsukiyama would keep him company during his downtime. It angered him beyond all hopes of describing; that man given him everything he wanted, everything he needed, everything he had, and would give him so much more if he had just asked.
I only avoided the matter because he's a man. He thought, ...if it weren't for that, it wouldn't have mattered. For a second, he stopped beating himself up over the whole situation: Could anyone blame me for that?
Even Tsukiyama would have said no, more than likely. Kaneki had never been faced with that sort of topic before.
The fact that in one of his letters, Shuu had underhandedly implied that Touka's sole offering to Kaneki was sex... well, he was right. That was humiliating.
Not him being right, but what he was right about.
Fuck humiliating, that was outright shameful. Not only that, but he had been so easily deceived by that simple offer.
Though not much time had passed, he had nearly forgotten:
Little Mouse.
Apparently it was a girl— a woman, rather, whom was very close to Tsukiyama.
Vaguely, he wondered what she looked like. A nickname like that could be interpreted in many different ways, after all.
What sort of women would be around him?
Beautiful ones, clearly.
Models, actresses...
Rich people.

What if she's really stuck-up and just ignores me? He widened his eyes, Fuck, I'll hunt her ass down if I have to.
Some model bitch isn't going to stop me from finding Tsukiyama.
So what if you're pretty?
Shit...

Shaking those strange thoughts away, he set his mind on a goal:

I have to call her.

{ x }

He fumbled around quickly to find his cellphone, which had gone unused for quite some time, and he scoffed when he saw that the battery was dead. Where the hell am I gonna find a charger port!?

Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante were out what was considered a casual social area for most of the members to basically do whatever. No one had really designated a specific spot, it had just kind of become that way on its own.
Looking closer, it could be noticed that they were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors; they landed in a three-way tie almost every single time.

"Have any of you seen Banjou-san?" He asked the siblings, approaching them with a tentative smile.
They threw each other some collective glances, and Jiro shook her head to respond for all of them.
"Last time we saw him, he was heading to discuss some business issues. Something about Tsukiyama-san going missing?" Said Ichimi.
"Is that true...!?" Sante was wide-eyed. Though it wasn't as obvious on the other two siblings, it was clear that they were all curious to know as well.
Thinking on the safest way to respond, Kaneki placed his hand at the bottom of his chin. "I wouldn't say he's missing, he's probably somewhere around here," He told them, "I know he would never betray us, so he'll return eventually if not soon."
"I've never known him to leave off on his own before. It's weird." Jiro mused.
"Maybe he began to feel intrusive because of... uh..." Ichimi trailed off awkwardly.
"That sounds more accurate." Sante added.
Jiro punched each of the relatives in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Ichimi yelped, eyes closing. "Ouch!" Complained Sante, then both of them began rubbing the spots where they had been hit.
Kaneki smiled with unexpressed laughter at their interactions, then it changed into a sad smile.

"You're right. That's exactly why he left."

There was no sense in trying to conceal that Tsukiyama was missing. That he was gone. That he had left.

"Also exactly why he's more than likely not going to return."

The younger two fell into a pensive, saddened silence while Ichimi stared at Ken, shocked.

"He just... left?" Jiro asked.
Sante gave a sad glance away.
"He's not coming back...?"
"Probably not." Kaneki tried to pretend that it didn't hurt, but it didn't really work out too well. His convincing, fake smile faltered, and he ran his fingers through his hair, stressed. "Yeah... he's gone." He whispered, closing his eyes.
A silent moment passed, then the siblings' attention was drawn to something behind Ken.

Before he could turn around to look, his unasked question was answered.
"Banjou-san!" The three said at the same time in a celebratory manner, visibly relaxing from the tense atmosphere.
"Hi there, guys." Banjou smiled at his comrades, walking over casually, hands in his pockets, "Kaneki-san." He added.
"Please, just because I'm a leader doesn't mean I'm automatically a 'san', Banjou-san." The one-eye told him, then got down to the point, "Do you have access to a cell-phone, perhaps?" He asked.
"Mm...?" Banjou scratched at his strange goatee in thought. "Yeah. Why? If you don't mind me asking..."
"I have something important to take care of." Kaneki replied.
"Alright, I understand." He nodded, "Don't go too crazy with it, though."

Banjou dug around in what appeared to be a rather massive pocket, then pulled out a small, cheap flip-phone.

"I won't, it's not like I've got a girlfriend to gush at for an hour." Rolling his eyes, Ken turned away, ignoring anything else that might have been said. Sputtered protests of his departure were clearly audible, but there was no way in hell that he was going to respond. "I'll bring this back in a bit." He told him, waving his hand over his shoulder to dismiss additional comments.
The Gas-Mask trio resumed their game of Rock, Paper, Scissors after that, and they were joined by a pouting Banjou just after a few rounds of their perpetually occuring ties.