Arthropods (Tokyo Ghoul Male Reader x Touka) Book 2 Scorpio

A very strange stranger

You stayed late at Anteiku, wiping the bar as the day came to an end. Touka had gone to study and Kaneki was upstairs with Hinami, since they were good friends now it seemed. Her mother was catching up with Shinetsu and everyone else had gone home, even Yoshimura was napping in the back. You weren't hosting another Zodiac group today, or even arranging to meet someone. Right now you were simply cleaning up and preparing to lock up for the night. It had been a quiet day, not much going on and only a handful of customers all day.

The door opened and a stranger walked in, figures that someone would come in. You wanted to go home but apparently someone just had to burn the midnight oil. You gave your signature smile and quickly pulled out a chair for the man. "Welcome to Anteiku, it's a little late so the kitchens are closed, but I can still make you any coffee or..."

"Tea please." The man stated in a strange, familiar voice. He was talk, almost a half foot taller then you and slim, only a little broader then yourself. His hair was black and messy with a darker stubble coming in on his face, uneven and unkempt side burns came from the sides of his jawline, indicating he was unable to grow a full beard yet had let it grow out shabbily. He was young, around his early twenties possibly. You'd never seen this man before, and yet everything about him was familiar.

Tea? You suddenly thought to yourself, pulling yourself back to the present. "Yes sir, as you wish, how do you like it?" The stranger gave an ironic grin and sat down at the bar, looking around the place.

"However you take it." He told you, his face grinning in grim amusement. The man stunk of alcohol, which surprised you since he didn't ask for more drink. Drunks coming in at late hours usually did so after they had been booted out of the bars and were on the prowl for more alcohol, they were quickly kicked out though.

"As you wish, but I apologise if it isn't up to your standard as I tend to make it specialised for me."

"No once else likes it eh?" The stranger chuckled.

"Pretty much." You said with a more genuine smile, it was funny how much this guy seemed to relax you. Usually your instincts were automatically suspicious and paranoia never trusted easily, but something about this man cancelled that out, there was a look in his eyes...  "Tough day?" You'd asked trying to put him at ease, you had a reputation as a host you uphold.

"You could say that." He nodded sadly, taking a sip of tea. He went silent for a moment before opening up. "I found out my fiancé is having a baby with my best friend today."

"Oof." You winched sympathetically, you couldn't imagine how'd you feel is touka ended up having a baby with Kaneki or something. "Sorry to hear that."  The man gave a short chuckle, a harsh one full of irony.

"So was I. I don't usually drink but some days you have to turn to the bottle for comfort, I don't find it anywhere else."

"So what brings you here? We don't sell booze."

"Needed to clear my head, try and... think." He rubbed his forehead painfully. "I never had to deal with overwhelming emotions before, at least not conflicting."

"Conflicting?! What's conflicting? They betrayed you, both of them. You should burn the bridge and disown them, end of story. That's what I would do." The stranger have a ironic, angry smirk. He looked up at you his eyes burning with a inferno of cascading emotions, it was enough to put even you on the back step.

"Your still too young to fully understand, you haven't started to feel yet have you? I barely understand it myself. How you can love someone so much that even after they stab you in the heart, how you can hate them with all your being even though every fibre in your body misses them. Even though they have left me alone and taken everything I care about... I'm still happy for them. I'm happy they can have a family they deserve, even if I'm not in it." There was an uncomfortable silence in which you said nothing and he sipped his tea. "You'll understand one day, by god you'll fucking understand it all."

"I..., uuhh... But, didn't you confront them?" You usually didn't pay much attention to the customers, but this stranger had your full and undivided attention. Your heart was racing as he spoke, a part of you recognising itself in him, wanting desperately wanting to know where that part of you ended up like.

"Oh I confronted them alright, publicly. They made no excuses and he asked for no quarter, didn't ask for any either. Part of me is proud of him when I think about it now. He was a coward when I first met him see, guess I raised him well."

"And..." You asked hanging off his every word. He lifted his shirt up to show one of the most livid scars you'd ever seen, even most ghouls would hadn't have walked away from it. There were older scars too, like an X across his chest and a large slash from shoulder to hip that looked like it should have split him in half.

"When ghouls fight, we fucking fight. Don't we?" He grinned, pulling his shirt back down. You nodded shallowly, remembering when Ayato left. "I'd like to say I gave as good as I got, but in actuality I lost. Took the best part of twenty years for me to loose a fight, but it happened finally. I was so fucking angry, I'm ashamed to say even when my mother was killed by the CCG I wasn't so angry." He took another sip of tea and waited in silence. Unsure where to go from there.

"So... so what are you gonna do now?"

"I dunno yet." He sighed leaning back and folding his arms. "I don't have any family except a half brother, he made his choice though."

"No one? What about a dad?"

"Pulled his heart out when I was nineteen.

"Aunties and uncles?"

"None still living."

"Friends?" You asked desperately, suddenly terrified to end up like this man.

"Never had any, i thought i had but, when the time came..." He trailed off again, a somber tone falling over the room. The stranger continued to sip his tea and didn't offer anymore information. His eyes were wide and open, the light was on for sure but no body was home.

"Isn't, isn't that lonely?" You asked. He didn't answer immediately and at first you thought he didn't hear you, just before you repeated the question he spoke.

"Cripplingly. But the path you walk alone is the one that makes you the strongest apparently, we'll see I guess." He took a deep drink of his tea and nearly finished it there and then.

"I don't think so." You told him.

"Why's that?"

"Because when your alone, that's it. You have to stand on your own two feet sure, but how can being miserable help us. I mean I get that sometimes pain makes us stronger, but what's the point in being strong if there's nothing to be strong for? I used to be totally emotionless, I just didn't feel the same way others did. I still have that to an extent, but I'm working on it. I'm happy, I have responsibilities sure but that doesn't detract by the fact I have everything I need. Who knows what I'll have tomorrow."

"Or what you'll loose tomorrow." The stranger cut in.

"You said you still love them even though they hurt you right?"

"Right." He nodded.

"Well then if you obviously cared deeply for them before, they were probably the two closest people in your life."

"Yeah, that's a fair way to put it."

"And if you could do it all over again, would you do it differently?" More silence, the cogs in his head turning as he obviously was struggling for an answer.

"I don't know, maybe? But also maybe not."

"If you still aren't sure then surly it was worth it, you had a pretty experience, one anyone who has been cheated on and attest to, then surely it was worth it?"

"Perhaps, but now I don't know what to do."

The phone rang causing you to jump, you fumbled somewhat awkwardly to reach it. Pulling it out you say it was your mother calling you, answering it you turned to apologise to the stranger, only to find he was gone. A full cup of tea on the bar top where he'd been sitting, completely untouched.

"(Y/N) hunny it's late, are you gonna be home soon."

"...yeah." You told her, a little alarmed. "I'll be home soon don't worry." You hung up, pocketing the phone and taking a sip of the tea on the table. It was still good, so you quickly drank it and headed off home. A little troubled by what you'd seen and heard, unsure what to think of it.