"Okay, idiot. Talk; why have you not told the street girl to go home?" Touka growled out. She stood before Kaneki once more, hands on her hips as she glared him down. The half-ghoul shifted uneasily and swallowed noisily.

"Its not that I don't want to help keep her safe, its just, um…" Kaneki trailed off. He didn't know how to put his intentions into words without saying too much. His reasons for wanting to help the street urchin were personal; no one else needed to know about his aunt and just how close he had come to running away when he was younger. Touka took a threatening step forward at his lacking reply, however. Kaneki felt more uneasiness pool in his stomach at her threatening movements. It was times like these that Touka really did remind him of an apex predator.

"Just what?" She asked as she furrowed her delicate brows. "Why haven't you told her to go back to her family? Its dangerous for her to be on the streets, Kaneki. You know this, so why haven't you done anything?"

"U-um… I just, I just wanted to make sure she had family to go back to… and that they were nice." Kaneki managed to stutter out. "B-but I haven't been able to talk to her. She always runs away before I can." Kaneki kept his eyes trained to carefully to the side as he tried to explain the mess inside his head and heart. As such, he didn't see the momentary surprise and growing fondness that flashed across Touka's face. The girl huffed softly in amused irritation.

"That's it? You've just been too shy to approach her?" Touka asked. Kaneki blinked. Had Touka misheard? Kaneki risked a look at Touka's face and was surprised to see her raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Um, no. I've tried to talk to her every day for a week. She, uh, just keeps stealing the food before I can talk to her. I even tried putting it out of her reach, but she somehow grabbed it anyway." Kaneki explained sheepishly. There was a pause as Touka digested the information.

"You… couldn't keep food away from a twelve-year-old little girl?" Touka asked incredulously.

"Um, well, you see-" Kaneki's fumbled explanation was cut off by Touka's near hysterical giggling.

"Oh my freak, Kaneki. You got owned by a little human child!" Touka gasped out. She bent over as her giggles turned to stomach clenching laughter. The anger and tension that had suffused the room dissipated at her laughter.

Kaneki felt his cheeks start to burn and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Technically, she wasn't wrong. He had let a human child basically run wild and steal from him. For any ghoul this would have be humiliating. Heck, even for the human Kaneki once was it would have been a low blow to his pride as a man. As a half ghoul, Kaneki should have been faster, stronger, and smarter than a mere beggar girl. The fact that he wasn't said more about Kaneki's cautious temperament than his physical capabilities.

Finally, Touka calmed enough to get her breath back.

"Okay then, I guess I'll have to go get her then. You obviously can't." She gave him a raised eyebrow, as though expecting him to disagree with her assessment. He couldn't so she continued "You normally feed her around this time, right? I'll go grab her and bring her in here so that you can talk to her." Touka assured him with a smile. Then she grinned and snickered behind a raised hand. "Sheesh, I can't wait till I tell the others about this, they'll laugh their asses off!" Touka crowed before heading out.

I envisioned two options for Touka's response. Laugh her butt off or be all nonplussed and ask him how stupid/inept he has to be to not be able to catch little Dani. Touka needs to laugh more in my opinion, so I let her laugh a little.

Also, as for Dani's name... I don't really like it? It sounds too close to Danny and while he won't be making an appearance in this story, I never like how most fanfiction writers handle the clone aspects of Danny Phantom fanfiction. Ergo... I think she's going to go by Ellie or Ella or something. Any thoughts on that?

Also, she is not going to view Danny as her father figure. Eww. He's only three years older than her at most. Instead, he's going to be that weird big brother dude who doesn't understand the intricacies of female thought.

Also... hey! I'm still alive! And with an A on college trig class too! Yay! (that's what I've been slaving over since the end of spring semester and also why I haven't updated... sorry.)

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Please review if you like this story, it tells me you appreciate the time I put into it.