If I could a request for a Tokyo Ghoul polyship:
Touka x Eto x Ken(& or Sasaki)
of course! thank you for requesting:) since i didn’t know what you wanted me to write exactly i went for headcanons with ken, and a scenario with haise.
warnings: possibly ooc characters :(, lowercase used for style or whatever, etouken is fluff while eto/touka/haise is angst with comfort, unfortunately i’ve never written poly relationships so i’m sorry if this isn’t the best!
> they’d probably get together wordlessly. kaneki reads eto’s work and gets completely entranced, complimenting her and asking her to show him her drafts—eto simply complies, still flabbergasted as to why and how he likes this kind of thing. especially when it’s written by her. touka would be extremely protective of kaneki, warming up to eto slowly—though still, in some odd and almost obsessive way, attracted to the both of them.
> they’d start hanging out more, kaneki dragging touka with him to spend time with eto more often than she’d like, until the three somehow just acknowledge the fact that they may be more than acquaintances—yet also deeper than friends.
> eto’s attraction towards kaneki manifests through how much she analyzes him—how alike they are, and yet how different their roles were in their “story.” she finds it endearing, how innocent and caring he seems to be despite all that he’s been through. for touka, she feels an immediate attachment and desire towards her... kind of? touka’s obviously extremely possessive of kaneki, making her extremely hostile—and even aggressive—towards eto. she wants to “break” touka. she wants to play with her and see how far her hostility and aggression can go.
> touka’s love for kaneki isn’t that hard to deduce the origins of. in terms of eto, though, she’d probably see her as an outlet for her frustration at first. she doesn’t trust eto, regardless of what ken tries to tell her. with time, she begins fantasizing about breaking eto’s newfound peace—or, well, her attempts at finding peace by kaneki’s side. she’s jealous, but not in the way you’d think—her jealousy goes from possessiveness towards ken to a desire for eto’s attention.
> kaneki’s just kind of oblivious to whatever touka and eto have going on. he’s happy they get along (sort of), and extremely relieved touka stops trying to straight up kill eto every time she so much as breathes in his direction. he thinks it’s kind of cute how the two interact anyway—especially when, in a few months, he sees touka bringing eto small gifts and giving them when she thinks he can’t see. not to mention the little compliments that touka almost desperately tries to hide in the form of criticism.
> they’d make a habit of celebrating any holiday. like families do. none of them had the best upbringing—they’re not good at this at all. it especially takes eto a while to not get extremely emotional whenever they get together to celebrate one of their birthdays, for example. ken is always incredibly kind, touka tries her best to make both of her partners feel safe and happy, while eto picks up a hobby of handmade gifts and loving letters, which melts the hearts of both of her partners.
> kaneki is the best at physical affection—almost like he was made for it. eto has mastered the art of words, so it doesn’t take her long to speak probably the most loving and poetic things touka and ken have ever heard. touka’s awkwardly in the middle of trying to do both. she still struggles with fully showing her kindness (much less than before, though), a lot of it laced with the fear of possibly losing both of them.
> eto’s the source of any darker elements of this relationship, i think. she wants to become one with ken and touka—often turning innocent kisses into lip-biting until she draws blood, enjoying the fact that she can taste it. she is just as, if not even more, possessive than touka—not that she’s exactly proud of it.
> the three of them would definitely do simple household chores together. they’re all learning how to live normally again—some learning it all anew. the simplicity of home life, of a normal life, of a life where they don’t have to fight to survive, is romantic and exciting in its own way. kaneki and eto would probably mess around with touka a lot too, just annoying her, knowing she gets really cute when she’s angry.
> eto and kaneki would also 100% just worship touka. they bond over how much they love her and how adorable they think she is with everything she does. touka eventually gets really flustered over it—just listening to the two littering her with compliments, sometimes while cuddling or kissing, which just amplifies the embarrassment.
> touka would absolutely be rough with eto, because that’s how their relationship is. she’s going to be loving and caring one second, just to be somewhat harsh to her the next. it’s all because of how much she desires eto’s affection and attention. neither of them fully understand it, but they’re happy to comply.
> eto loves to take care of her partners. she’s got a motherly vibe to her, and she really does try her best to make both of them feel as good and safe as they can be :( don’t get me started on the way she gets when either of them are tired or just not in a good mood. she’ll tend to their needs immediately and make sure nothing in the world can ever hurt them.
> ken’s a lot like eto, but he usually gets lost in such situations. he gets so worried he acts like a little kitten and tries to comfort them with his words—making them go absolutely insane and forget about whatever went wrong, focusing on how sweet he is.
> what IF eto gets cuteness aggression at the sight of kaneki being really focused, resting after a long day, even just talking idly with touka?
> even a few years into the relationship, eto remains touka’s favorite outlet. if ken’s gone, touka is all over eto—twice as much as she usually is, as if she thinks they’ve both fused and suddenly she has to give eto double the love since she’s started to house ken.
> eto and kaneki love to read to touka when she’s busy with something as some form of background noise, and touka is always happy to listen.
sometimes—only sometimes—when he falls asleep in a very specific place, with two very specific people near him, he has a very specific dream.
a dream that leaves something behind when he wakes up.
a dream that takes something, too.
a dream after which he forgets who he is.
after which reality and fiction—no, the reality that is now, and the reality that once was, without him, all blend into each other.
he awakes in a bed that isn’t his.
he is breathing too fast.
his vision’s a little too blurry.
touka’s beside him—asleep, well, sort of. her body’s still. her face isn’t. there’s tension in the way her breathing’s so, so heavy, in the way her back’s turned.
eto is already up. he doesn’t think she ever really sleeps, when he’s around. she’s sitting at the edge of the bed, one leg pulled close, eyes far away, he knows she’s thinking deeply about something. she always looks like that.
neither of them say anything. they never do. the silence is heavy—it suffocates the three of them, especially haise, it makes him want to cough. yet he doesn’t want to shatter the one thing they have as a constant, their newfound peace, the thing that keeps them from breaking, from drilling their way into ruin at a sped up pace.
the room is packed with things no one wants to touch.
no one wants to be the first to break it.
it’d be too easy to be selfish enough to shatter the whole thing.
“that dream again?” eto says, not looking at him. “you saw him?” she asks, her voice is colder than usual.
colder than it is in the dreams.
colder than it used to be, maybe. before he knew her.
before she knew him in this “form”.
not fake, just—far. it’s as if he’s reaching out, holding out his hand, screaming out her name, yet he can never quite grasp her. like there are meters, kilometers, walls, oceans separating them.
he stares at the ceiling, eyes digging into the white paint, searching for answers—answers he can’t quite read.
his hands tightly grip the sheets.
he pretends he didn’t hear her.
touka turns around, a sign she’s awake. her eyes open slowly, like it hurts to move. like she’s being held down by something, something he can’t see.
she sits up, still half-asleep.
rubs her eyes, getting a closer look at him. was her vision blurry, just like his? does she also have these dreams, dreams of someone like him, yet not quite him?
touches his arm like she’s afraid he might run away, like a lost kitten would at the slightest touch. “you okay?”
“he gave me that look again.” eto exhales sharply, like it got pulled out of her. she didn’t want it to come out that loud.
“i don’t know how i can even allow myself to love you,” she says. “when half of you is someone i ruined.”
touka squeezes his hand. doesn’t let go. she feels him tense, she feels him wanting to say something.
“you didn’t do anything wrong,” she says. takes the words right out of his mouth. he isn’t the right person to speak, not right now.
“yes, i’m angry. yes, i miss him. yes, this hurts.” she pauses. maybe she’s looking for the right words, or waiting for a response. maybe she’s just wants it to set in. “but i can’t blame either of you for that.”
eto watches from the corner of her eye. touka’s words are honest.
she knows that, yet she still can’t believe them.
haise looks down at their hands.
a stupidly small thing. but he likes it. and for a second he thinks it was always like this, he thinks he has a right to enjoy it.
“i know i’m not him,” he says, voice low. “and i know i’ll never be him.
but i’m also… not, not him.
i don’t know what i’m supposed to be.”
touka smiles, it’s sweet, yet tired. “you don’t have to be anything. neither of us wants you to become him. you’re enough like this. with us.”
looks at him. it doesn’t feel wrong. he doesn’t feel wrong, or foreign.
then lies back down. feels like home.
no one says anything else.
but something softens. haise feels it, at least. he feels the warmth of the both of them, he feels the slightly cold hands eto has always had.
and even though nothing’s fixed—
even though the pain is still there, and they know fully well it’ll stay—
it’s enough to be able to say with certainty they’ll be okay.
