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The first time he kissed her it had just been a peck on the lips. He noticed her halfway through the battle, jumped down from his perch atop a building, pecked her on the lips, and bounded off before she could even fully understand what had just happened.
She chose not to think about it in order to stay focused on the battle at hand, which was slowly drawing to an end. She tried not to think about the way he said her name for a second time in this state. She most certainly didn’t think about the harsh contrast between this new Takizawa and the Takizawa she had known for so many years. No, she didn’t think about any of these things...at least not during the battle.
Takizawa’s escape seemed to signal the end of the fight. Despite how hard she tried to focus on the battle after such an absurd experience, there hadn’t been much for her to do anyway. Her squad was easily capable enough to take care of the few lingering ghouls.
As she stood amidst the wreckage from the battle, she tried to decide what her next action should be. Just as she moved to offer assistance to one of her team members, Mutsuki approached her with a concerned look on his face.
“First-class Mado, are you alright? Do you need medical assistance? You have blood on your mouth.”
“I’m fine. I wasn’t injured at all.” Confused, she reached up to run a hand over her mouth, pulling it away to see that there was, in fact, blood on her face. How…? An image of Takizawa flashed in her mind and the world in front of her seemed to tilt.
Mutsuki rushed to her side and grabbed her arm as he motioned for a medic to come over. She managed to stay upright with his help, but just barely.
The longer she thought about the blood on her lips, the stronger the urge to vomit became and she couldn’t help but double over, covering her mouth with her hand. This was probably one of her coworker’s- Scrubbing her mouth with her hand, she stopped that train of thought before it could cause her any more harm, and just barely kept herself from retching. No, she refused to dwell on that type of thought. She didn’t even want to think about that man any more than she already had, and definitely not what the taste on her lips meant.
---
The second time her kissed her it was more than just a peck. She had been separated from the rest of her squad as she chased a ghoul around a corner. She had no idea he would be right on the other side of the wall.
She saw him leap towards her this time, but the seconds of warning she was granted this time were still not enough to allow her to stop him. Faintly, she realized the ghoul she had had meant to pursue escaped farther down the hall, but there was nothing she could do as Takizawa already had her in his grasp.
Excitement. Hunger. Desire. Shame? Some of the emotions she believed were on his face as he was inches away from her. Most certainly nothing even close to affection. That would be absurd. Nearly as absurd as the fact that she had been in his arms and was still alive.
Tears streamed down her face as he simply looked at her, with a sickening smile on his face. She almost fooled herself into thinking that he might have actually smiled out of joy at seeing her again, but she would have been a fool to think he had that much humanity left in him, right?
His lips brushed hers and she fought the urge to scream in his face at that moment.
His lips pressed harder and she swore she almost forgot what he was and where they were and what was going on in that moment.
His lips moved against hers and maybe she wanted to believe he was the same Takizawa she had grown to love over all those years. Or maybe he just took advantage of her in that moment, but somehow his tongue made it’s way into her mouth. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t return the kiss, but somewhere in her she knew she was lying to herself.
For a moment, she really did forget the present. She really did think this was the same Takizawa she had loved; still might love. For a moment, she let her defenses down and showed Takizawa how much she loved him in that kiss, and she knew he loved her, too, somewhere in his messed up brain.
The kiss seemed to last for an eternity. He pulled away from her and that same disgusting smile was still on his face.
Her legs trembled, and her arms gripped his cloak. His arms were the only thing that kept her standing. Tears continued to stream down her face, and she just barely held back a sob.
“Ma~” A kiss was placed on her cheek. “do~” A kiss to her other cheek. He said her name in a singsong voice. “Cheer up!” One more kiss was placed on her forehead.
“Takizawa...” she whispered, “why?” and for a second his expression faltered. As he opened his mouth, one of her colleagues shouted her name, and his expression quickly reverted to his creepy smile.
He placed one more kiss to her lips as he let go of her. “See you soon” were his last words as he skipped back down the hall away from the sound of battle behind her.
As soon as he was out of sight, her knees buckled and she fell to the floor. Now that the moment was passed, the taste of blood filled her mouth and she clutched the front of her shirt as she vomited on the ground in front of her. Disgusting.
It wasn’t long before one of her colleagues found her kneeling on the floor. They didn’t question her about what had happened; they simply helped her up and over to get medical attention. She didn’t even know how she could have explained what just happened.
---
The third time he kissed her- no, that’s not right.
The third time he tried to kiss her, she saw it coming.
For months, she had been plagued by nightmares. Maybe some of those dreams weren’t quite nightmares, but they bothered her all the same.
More than a few mornings she had to rush to the toilet because she had remembered all too vividly the taste of blood that wasn’t hers which had filled her mouth that day. More than a few mornings she woke up with tears streaming down her face because she couldn’t believe all of this was reality. More than a few mornings she had woken up with her heart aching, for reasons she couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge.
Nevertheless, life continued on at the CCG as usual. After the last major battle, they had been able to acquire quite a bit of useful information about aogiri, and preparations had been made for another massive raid on their base.
This time Akira was expecting him.
She managed convince her superiors that it would be best if she were part of the squad assigned to taking down Takizawa. They had realized that his actions couldn’t be predicted like most other ghouls. However, she had been able to give them enough information and insight into his thoughts that they felt it would be possible to take him down. Since she was the one who seemed to know the most about him, it only made sense for them to put her on the squad assigned to taking him down.
The battle had been going on for a while before they finally got some idea of where Takizawa was located in the building. They had almost decided that finding Takizawa was a lost cause when the information came in. Exterminating this ghoul would be an enormous success for the CCG, so everyone was praying this mission would be a success.
The information they’d gathered on his location suggested that he wasn’t being as hostile as usual, and that he was mostly on the defense. She was worried about what the possible reasoning could be behind such actions. Perhaps he had an idea that they were aiming for him this time, and he was trying to conserve his energy. This made their jobs slightly more difficult, but they were glad that this meant less casualties.
When they finally reached his location, Akira saw him before he saw her.
The plan was to take him by surprise, with Akira making the first strike. The rest of her squad would hang back while she drew him out, and they would reveal themselves once she had landed the first strike.
She took a deep breath as she stepped into the room, “Takizawa!” His head shot up and he immediately turned around to look at her. She was certain he had recognized her voice.
“Ma~ do!~” he sang out as he started towards her. “You found me!” His expression was less deranged than the last times she’d seen him, and she almost thought his expression looked like he was actually happy to see her. He was still far from the Takizawa she knew, and she had to cling to that thought to be able to do what she was about to.
She stood her ground as he approached, and watched as he got more excited as he got closer thinking that she might be happy to see him again, too. She made no move even as he got within the range of her quinque. After meeting him so many times, she was was betting on the belief that he posed no threat to her. Her assumption proved to be right as he got within arms reach of her.
As he leaned in to kiss her once again, she hit the release button on her quinque. Shock clouded his expression for a moment as her quinque pierced his chest, before a small smile appeared on his lips.
She moved to flick her wrist to activate the secondary features of her quinque at the same moment he raised a hand to her cheek. “Why-” he began, as her quinque exploded through his torso.
Her squad members ran into the room with their quinques ready. “Why are you crying?” he half whispered- half mouthed to her as she tore her quinque from his body and stepped away to allow her squad to finish him off.
She wanted to turn her back to him as she walked away, but for some reason she couldn’t. As she took a few more steps away she raised her left hand to her face, and found that he hadn’t been lying. Why would she be crying?
Her squad made quick work of him, piercing through him over and over. Not a single sound escaped from his lips which continued to hold a small, sad smile as he gazed at her.
Tears clouded her vision. She turned away and missed his attempt to form her name a once more before he blacked out.
The third time he kissed her was something she would never experience.