When the adrenaline in his body calmed down, Kaneki was in a daze and not quite sure of his surroundings.
The first of his senses to clear out was smell, and god, it smelt so good that Kaneki thought he could eat the air itself. It was as if his mother had cooked again for him, but it was ten times more delicious and he crawled on all fours towards the source of the smell.
At that moment, he felt like if he couldn't taste that glorious food, he would drop dead right then and there, so he kept crawling and soon he could see clearly again.
In front of him was a feast laid out with only his favourite dishes, his mother welcoming him to the table. She smiled at him softly as he sat down and quietly left the room as Rize appeared behind Kaneki to whisper into his ear:
'Come on, Kaneki. It's your long-awaited meal. We've prepared it so well for you. And it's all, all yours.'
He noticed a lack of cutlery but Rize just chuckled and stroked the top of his head, 'Who cares about manners? You're hungry, aren't you? Eat up!'
With shaking hands Kaneki picked up the nearest steak and from the moment his teeth sank into the tender meat he realised that the wonderful fragrance of the food couldn't even try to compete with the taste.
He kept eating and eating and it was good, so good, why had he starved for so long when he could have eaten this, why had he insisted on torturing himself with that rotten food when he could have had this long, long ago...
Kaneki paid no attention to the sauce running down his chin and onto his shirt, or to how the more he ate the hungrier he became. Rize was still behind him, whispering encouragements as he ate as if he had never eaten before.
At some point Kaneki heard a voice and looked around. The voice was familiar, felt like home, but that was ridiculous. He was home, he was alone, so how could he be hearing a voice which reminded him of home? But then Rize shooshed the voice away and he heard it no more, so he returned to eating.
He was about halfway through the table when Rize disappeared from his shoulder, and he felt another presence, threatening his meal. His meal. It was all his it is all his all his all his his his his his-
'You idiot.'
The familiar voice made him jerk around and see a figure towering above him.
He got a kick straight to the face and he crashed into the nearby wall.
'Didn't I tell you?' the voice asked, boiling with anger as its owner yanked on his hair to raise his face. 'A ghoul's hunger drowns out all reason.' Kaneki's vision was blurry from the earlier kick but he knew that this face meant something to him.
'It hurt so much you wanted to die.'
Another kick, this time to his chest.
As Kaneki was gasping for air, the voice finished its train of thought, 'You should've died.'
Kaneki looked in front of him and the sight made him retch. The body of Hide lay not too far away from him. Or at least... what was left of it.
Unbelievingly, Kaneki dragged himself to the remains of his best friend. There was blood on the ground, on his clothes, it was everywhere and he realised it was in his mouth too.
'Did- Did I...?'
'What does it look like, dumbass?'
Hide's limps were torn apart, bone glistening red, his chest gaping up at the sky, no movement visible from the ruptured organs inside, head lying limply on its side.
Kaneki retched and choked again but nothing came out and he just doubled over in a silent wail.
With shaking hands he carefully picked up the upper half of Hide's shoulder and his head, the only part of his torso which wasn't ripped apart, and sobbed as he cradled it.
Touka silently watched as Kaneki sank into the despair he'd created for himself.
Neither of them noticed it, Kaneki being too busy mourning, and Touka wondering what to do, but Hide's eyes were open, frozen in horror and pain.