#aro!marude

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Hide and Marude had been working together for quite a while. There were no secrets between them — It just didn’t happen when you had the Washuu on your trail and you trusted each other with your life.

That said, there was still something between them that Hide felt was unspoken.

Marude knew that Hide’s goal was finding Kaneki, saving him, and getting him back in his life. But as far as Marude knew, Hide’s feelings for Kaneki were platonic.

Hide wished that he could have a long talk with Marude over this, but he knew that wasn’t possible. He could barely make a single word understandable with his voice, and he doubted his throat would be able to stand having a full, long conversation.

So instead, he wrote a note. He was much better at speaking than he was writing, but he channeled his inner Kaneki and went through a few drafts before he was settled on how it sounded. And then he handed it to Marude.

“Hm, what’s this?” Marude had asked. He took the paper and squinted. Hide might have fixed his wording on the final draft, but his handwriting and spelling were still pretty bad.

As Marude read Hide’s long note, the silence stretched on. Hide hated it. He normally hated silences, but it was even worse when you were waiting to see what someone’s reaction was going to be.

Finally, Marude set the paper down and looked at him.

“You didn’t really need to tell me all this, kid. I put together that you loved your friend a while back.”

Oh. Hide’s shoulders sagged. He felt embarrassed, and felt that he had just wasted so much time.

“It’s alright. It’s endearing.” Marude said, trying to make him feel better. “And I don’t mind it, by the way. I might not like Sasaki or Kaneki or whatever the hell his name is, but I don’t mind you liking guys.”

Hide tilted his head and gave the man a look, asking for elaboration. Despite how close he and Marude had gotten over time, he had still expected Marude to be a homophobic old man.

“What? You’re surprised? I’ll have you know, I helped plenty of queer investigators to stay in the closet when it came to Tsuneyoshi finding out.”

Hide grabbed his notebook from the desk and wrote, And what about you? What’s your orientation, if you don’t mind me asking?

“Me?” Marude asked. “There isn’t really much to tell. Never been in a relationship, never wanted to have one. I never really... liked anyone like that.” 

Are you aromantic? Hide wrote.

“You saying I smell?” Marude snapped.

Hide tapped the “n” in the word.

“Huh?” Marude squinted. “Oh, aromantic? What’s that?”

It means you don’t feel romantic attraction.

Marude blinked, rereading the words again and again and taking in that information.

“There’s... There’s a word for it?”

Hide nodded.

“Wow, that’s... That’s incredible. Everyone would always tell me I’d ‘meet the right person someday’ or place bets on how long until I settled down.”

I’m sorry. That must have been annoying.

“You have no idea! You’d think after nearly 50 years they’d let it go!” He reached over and pat Hide on the back. “Thanks, kid. That word — it really does help.”