Chapter 1

Rendezvous

It had been 5 months and 2 weeks since Kaneki left the 11th ward and made the vital decision to disconnect from his human life. This included ceasing his attendance in college classes.

Since then Kaneki hadn't met his best friend, Hide. Ever since his first encounter with Tsukiyama Shuu they had rarely met with each other.

Will they meet again? Or were their fates divided?

"Onii-chan..." the metallic door opened slowly and revealed a little girl holding a yellow notebook.

Inside the not-so-spacey bedroom, she saw the 'onii-chan' she was looking for. He was reading a certain book seriously while sitting against a standard silvery desk.

The white haired young man seemed to realize the presence of the little girl. He looked up at her and closed the book he was reading. He gave her his little smile.

"Hi, Hinami-chan. Come in." He greeted with a caring voice.

"O-okay." Hinami-chan stepped in and closed the door behind her.

Hinami approached her adoptive big brother's his desk. She then gave her yellow notebook to him, like a student to it's teacher.

"Um... Kaneki onii-chan... I've done the math practice you gave me. Could you mark it?" She asked with a hint of hesitation. She was afraid to disturb anything that her big brother was doing.

Yet Kaneki just smiled and he opened the yellow notebook that was full of questions and answers. It was the notebook Hinami always used to study. He only opened the page with her latest practice and scanned her work.

"Good job, Hinami-chan. Sure I'll mark it. Wait here okay?" Kaneki finally said kindly to the younger ghoul. Hinami nodded and sat down to a chair on the other side of the desk. Kaneki used the red pen she had brought along with her and marked her work.

Kaneki had been carrying the role of Hinami's tutor since they had moved little over 5 months ago. Hinami always asked Kaneki to helped her study, but it wasn't rare for Kaneki to be to busy whit his business and only have the time to teach Hinami at night. That's if Kaneki even came home at all. His investigation took up a lot of his time. This moment was one of the rare chances for Hinami to be able to study with her big brother's help.

Glancing around, Hinami saw the closed book that Kaneki had been reading. The title was something to do with martial arts. Pressure points?

"Onii-chan. You're reading about martial arts again?" Asked Hinami breaking the silence.

Kaneki only glanced to Hinami's direction, "oh, that? Yeah. I need to think of another convenient way to defeat my enemies." He confessed and continued correcting Hinami's mistakes. "Hinami-chan, you didn't minus 8 from your answer on number 5 here..."

Hinami jolted up and examined the answer Kaneki indicated with the end of the pen. "A-ah! I forgot... Then probably number 6 is wrong as well..." she said disappointed.

Kaneki chuckled and patted her head as he smiled, "It's okay. At least you understand how to work on this practice. You're getting even better everyday, Hinami-chan." Complimented the kind ghoul. Hinami could feel her cheeks turning red from mixed embarrassment and excitement. "Th-thank you very much, onii-chan!" She quickly nodded and went back to her seat. Deep inside she was overjoyed every time 'onii-chan' praised her.

Hinami sat quietly again. Her gaze turned to Kaneki's room. Unsure of what else to do, she observed. Kaneki's room was simple. There weren't many decorations. He had the basics, a bed, a desk, his wardrobe, and shelves with only decorations were the mini statues scattered about.

"Onii-chan sure really doesn't care about decors. Well, it's not like he has anytime for that. But it would be nice for him spice things up here..." Mused Hinami. She stood up from her seat and browsed the shelves. Kaneki's noticed but decided to let her be until he finished checking her work.

Hinami browsed all the books that were organized neatly by subject.

"Novels... several poems... mostly martial arts. Onii-chan does really worked hard for fighting, huh..." noted Hinami, talking to herself lowly so Kaneki couldn't hear. Her eyes trailed down and there she saw a photo of Kaneki, his hair still black with somebody with orange hair. "Huh? Who is he?" Leaning closer the the photograph, she heard Kaneki speak.

"My bestfriend."

Startled, hinami snapped back to her previous upright position.

"O-onii-chan! I-I'm sorry!" She apologized immediately.

"Haha! What are you apologizing for?" Asked Kaneki chuckling a bit at her awkwardness.

"W-well... that's..." she was confused for what to say.

Kaneki chuckled some more, walked to the photo frame and took it in his black nailed hands. His eyes became a bit sad remembering his bestfriend. Hinami could see it. The way Kaneki looked at it was the way she did looking at pictures of her mother, just not as intense.

"What's his name, onii-chan?" Hinami decided to ask.

"Hide. My friend from university. We were already friends since the elementary though. He had been following me anywhere I go. Haha..." said Kaneki a shadow if a laugh in his tone, "I wonder what is he doing now... that guy."

"... why are you not going back to the university, onii-chan?" Asked Hinami innocently.

Kaneki sighed heavily and put the photo back to it's place. His face turned serious and he looked up to the ceiling.

"I'm too busy for... that..." there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"I see..." replied Hinami-chan. Then there was silence.

But Kaneki spoke up, changing his mind, "No. That was wrong. It's not because I'm too busy," Hinami glanced back to her right where Kaneki was standing, "it's because I already decided to leave that world a long time ago. Leaving my ordinary life. Leaving Hide..." his fist tightened at the thought.

"Onii-chan..." muttered Hinami sympathetically.

Hide had been his only friend since he was young. Without Hide, he didn't think he would've made it through his primary years. His orange haired bestfriend had been his biggest supporter in life.

Now... They hadn't met since his 'severing of all ties.' Kaneki changed his phone number. He had also lied to Touka, saying he would visit Anteiku, never actually intending to do so. To visit the place that had accepted and helped him live as a ghoul. Thanks to them Kaneki was able to discover that ghouls were not entirely beasts. But despite all of that, he wasn't ready to see them. Not yet. There were still a lot of things to be done here.

But sometimes Hide really did came across his mind. 'What is he doing now?' 'Where is he?' 'Is he okay?' 'Does that guy have a girlfriend now?' 'Does he still eat to the usual place we used to go yo?' 'Does he still going to Anteiku to flirt with Touka-chan?'. All of those questions were a big part of Kaneki's curiosity. But to sum it all, Kaneki was just worried about Hide's safety.

"I wonder... if that guy is still safe..." his biggest worry slipped out from his mouth. He realized that and quickly he covered it, "a-ah... nevermind what I said. Here you go Hinami-chan. I'm done correcting it. Well done." He said immediately changing the topic, implying that they were done. Hinami of course understood this so she grabbed the notebook and held it tight against her chest. She looked down for a second, sad. Sad for seeing her big brother like this.

"Go on Hinami-chan. Take a rest or play with Banjou-san. That guy is bored around this hour." Kaneki said as he glanced at the clock. It was 4 PM.

Hinami nodded her head and ran into Kaneki, hugging him tight. Kaneki, caught off guard, was surprised but hugged her back. Hinami burried her face into Kaneki's t-shirt and muttered, "Promise me that you will always tell us when something's wrong... Kaneki onii-chan is a very kind person... I'm sure Hide-San really wants to see you again..." she hid her face but Kaneki could feel the tears through his thin t-shirt.

Kaneki smiled softly and patted her head. Carefully, he put his hands on top of Hinami's petite shoulders and pushed her away gently. Kaneki squatted down, making his height lower than Hinami's face. He looked up and looked into her eyes, desperately trying to hold back tears. Kaneki used his thumbs to brushed away the tear that had just fallen. His face softened and he gave her one of his previously abundant but now rare warm smiles.

"Thank you Hinami-chan. I'll keep that in mind. Don't cry, what are you crying for? It could ruin your cute pretty face, you know?" Said the caring big brother to his little sister. Kaneki already thought Hinami-chan as his precious little sister, promised himself to protect her at all costs.

Hinami frowned and squeezed the notebook even tighter into her chest, "it's just... I'm really sad to see you like this... You have suffered a lot... B-but... We couldn't do anything..." Hinami squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the tears threatening to spill.

Kaneki sighed and hugged Hinami tight. He soothed her back but she couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"Thank you Hinami-chan... I'm okay. Really. Shh... don't cry, don't cry. Look, I survived tons of stuff. Everything's okay now." Said Kaneki as he brushed another tear falling down Hinami's cheek.

Hinami's crying eased to a standstill and she nodded. Kaneki stood up and grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go."

Hinami's face lifted up, still blotchy and red, "g-go where?"

"You'll see." He responded with a smile.

"Kaneki! Where are you going?" Banjou quickly stood up from the sofa. If, by any chance, Kaneki was going anywhere dangerous, he had to go with him.

"I'm going to take Hinami-chan somewhere with me. Just a refreshment. Relax, Banjou-san." The white haired young man answered nonchalantly as he rolled up his black Samuel and Kevin blazer's sleeves to his elbows.

"Where is Tsukiyama and the others?"

"Tsukiyama's in his room. Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante are training on the rooftop."

"Good. Don't tell Tsukiyama about this. I don't want him to disturb me this time," Kaneki said stoically, "and tell Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante to clean the laundry after they're done."

"O-okay!" Banjou nervously nodded in response.

"Let's go Hinami-chan." Kaneki opened the front door and waited for the little girl to pass through it first. Hinami went through ahead, followed by Kaneki, the door closing with a click. Banjou could only wonder where on earth were they going.

"2 coffees please." Ordered Kaneki from the waitress.

"Would you like to try our waffle? We have vanilla, chocolate-"

"No, thank you. Perhaps another time." Kaneki knew what the waitress wanted to offer. Before she could finish he cut her off but she nodded and went to give the orders to the barista.

From her high seat Hinami was fidgeting, wondering why did Kaneki brought her along. She could feel a lot of stares from the other people. She could tell that probably it was because of Kaneki's unique appearance. His hair's white and messy so it attracted a lot of people's eyes. He also grown a little taller and more muscular because of everyday's intensive self training. Hell, he has the sixpack now. With the blazer and khaki jeans he was wearing, they didn't only see him because of his hair, but because of his cool looks. Kaneki seemed to realize the stares also but he ignored them and pretended not to know.

Truth to be told, Hinami also thought Kaneki as someone who's really handsome that it was almost sinful. She blushed a bit but quickly hid it with her red scarf she brought along.

To avoid awkwardness, the light brunette girl trailed her eyes around the room from her seat and checked all of the interiors. They were all so beautiful. Most of them were made of woods. There were cute plastic plants on top of the white wooden shelves with the company of a stack of old english books. There were also vintage style paintings on the wooden walls. The jazzy music made the atmosphere even better. It was a really cozy and beautiful café. She didn't know that Kaneki knew this kind of place.

"This place is really beautiful..." said the light brunette girl in awe. Kaneki chuckled lowly and hold his head against his palm.

"Aside from Anteiku, this place is where I and Hide were often hanging out to eat the popular waffle. The waffle that waitress offered. It was... delicious." He said as he stared off to nothing through the window beside them. When he said delicious he was hesitating because now every tastes other than human's meat and coffee are horrendous. But he really did remembered the waffles here were tasty.

He turned his face again facing the little girl, "I wanted to come here sometime but lately I've got no time to do so. I figured I should ask you to hang out with me. Do you like this kind of place, Hinami-chan?"

"Mm! I love it! It's beautiful! Thank you for bringing me here, onii-chan!" Hinami replied cheerfully.

Kaneki smiled and ruffled Hinami's head, "I'm glad. Your welcome."

The waitress finally came with a wooden tray which contained the coffees for the two waiting ghouls. She put the mugs on the table and bowed before she left. The aroma soothed the air. Hinami drank the coffee with a satisfied feeling.

Kaneki picked up the white mug. When he brought the mug to his lips, the bell rang, indicating that there were customers coming. Unfazed by it Kaneki sipped the warm coffee... until he stopped when he heard an all so familiar voice calling out his name.

"K-Kaneki...?"

Kaneki's eyes widened in shock. He almost dropped the mug that was already off from his lips. Nervously he looked towards his left, where a young man with orange hair and a red headphone around his neck was standing along with a long black haired woman wearing a white dress. They were holding hand with each other.

"Hi... de..."

It was none other than his bestfriend. Nagachika Hideyoshi.

Tamakuro's here has come with another TG fanfic. I got this idea from ShadowDragon94. He (idk what's his gender tho) said that I should make a fanfic where Kaneki meets Hide for the first time since the epic incident and what would Hide thought about the newborn Kaneki. Also there's the encouragement from doobieslayer! Thanks!

This story will be 4 chapters, or maybe 5. Don't worry, this story will update every twice a week! Next update will be on Sunday or if I can't, Monday.

Please follow, favorite, and review! Especially review, that stuff really encourage me!