DISCLAIMER

The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul Root A and Tokyo Ghoul:re and other products related to the TG Series are all owned by Sui Ishida, Shin Towada and Shueisha.

Please support the official release.

Chapter 20: Past, Present and Future

Anteiku was an interesting place now that I reckon.

Book open as I briefly glanced at the words there, a cup of warm coffee keeping my hands from getting annoyingly cold and the lack of excessive disturbance from other people.

Even the new staff members were quite happy to keep their distance from my table as I continued to enjoy my pleasant afternoon.

Work at Aogiri was maddening, the paperwork required to sign everyday seemed to grow the more days passed.

Sure, I was more than happy to devote my time in this dream, to achieve peace... but staying there, quietly dealing with issues coming from left and right, up and down for too long left me in a dull mood.

It was like trying to go beyond how much my creativity in writing emotion could go, extending the text sure but also damaging the quality of the previous words.

I sighed, the cup of warm energy reducing the tiredness that had threatened to push me to fall asleep.

Dad had truly made a beautiful coffee shop, I mused as I gave a quick look to the inwards of Anteiku, seeing so many people, humans and Ghouls, unknowingly sharing a moment of their life, from their work to rest and recover from the unpleasant and cold, real life.

Ukina... Mom would have probably loved all of this.

Thinking about that very theme brought nostalgia and.. distress, not because of the past but how this very predicament had seemingly fallen unto my shoulders.

I blinked and quietly closed the book, putting it in my purse and leaving the empty cup to Irimi.

The older woman nodded, complying with my silent request as I calmly walked over the door of dad's office.

I knocked, waiting for the muffled permission to enter and I did so.

Hair starting to gray out for his age and the overall stress in his past life, father managed to conserve that kind smile that mother had described so many times and with so much detail.

"Eto, is there something you need?"

He was partly desperate, especially with our dilemma.

While we had both apologised and forgiven each other, I was unwilling to just live with him.

It wasn't distrust nor any possible, remaining hatred.

It was... attachment to my current life.

"I wanted to ask... about mom...when it all started."

Dad's smile widened, his warmth increasing a notch. "Ukina... she was a smart woman, much like you are."

I smiled myself, considering the compliment duly noted as I nodded to him to continue.

"When we started to date, your mother was the one... doing everything."

..."What?" The proud and powerful Kuzen, letting his wife rule over him?

I knew from the journal that mom led father more than once... but to hear this to be true..

"Mind you it wasn't merely because I loved her that much. I was... quite unprepared in dealing with a relationship, especially with a human woman."

"But couldn't you just have followed normal tradition?" The man sighed tiredly before shaking his head negatively.

"While Noroi might have taught you correctly by saying that Ghouls in the 24th Ward are still using this rules, the same cannot be said for those living in the other Wards."

I blinked, a bit surprised by this very notion. How much of her knowledge regarding Ghouls was actually 'outdated'?

"Your mother was truly strong, very. Yet... there were moments were she was not and I.. had to be there for her."

"B-but-" "Admitting the one you love has weaknesses is not wrong, Eto. It is to not be there and helping them up when they need it."

I was stuck in the soft couch, remembering how I was the one needing a crutch.

Wade had always been there, offering help without much of a shrug. He never faltered.

"I.. think I know why you asked this particular question now, Eto... and the situation is quite different than how your mother and I were."

I flinched, recoiling briefly as I tried to wash off the surprise. "Dad.. why?" I whispered, trying to find a definitive answer to the greatest issue of them all. "Why it isn't like the thing you had with mom?"

"Your mother and I met when we were both adults, finding a common ground in something as simple as coffee." He sighed, trying to elaborate his response.

"Wade is much older than you. Five years are not quite a difference but when someone like him would find it forceful to try and approach you."

"But why age matters in this case?" I blurted quickly, my hands tied together by the dreadful fury that was pitting in my stomach. "I am seventeen, ten months from reaching legal adulthood and it shouldn't be a problem-"

"You misunderstood my point of view." Kuzen replied without hesitation. "Wade is aware that you are going to be of age soon, but it's a matter of growth and that you are incredibly influenced by puberty."

"What do you mean? I am more than calm when thinking about-" "You threatened to kill the pizza delivery man you called two hours ago when he came here empty-handed."

"I paid for my service and he literally got there late and without my pizza. I was legitimately angry-" "You said that you wanted to castrate him and send him back to his parents with his body chopped down."

"I..." Confusion riddled my mind as I actually evaluated that very episode. Maybe I might have gone overboard with that one but.. "What should I do then?"

"Play his game." Dad calmly said, relaxing a little as I dropped the subject. "Patience is your best ally in this predicament."

"What if he got someone else?" What if I lose him?

"Do you wish him to be happy?" I snorted, considering it a stupid question and nodded at him. "What if the one woman he finds makes him happy?"

A apocalyptic scenario, I deduced as I felt an headache resulting from the conflicting ways to solve that very, terrible situation.

"So I need to just wait?"

Father chuckled and I felt a pout forming in my face at the amusement the man could drain from her confusion.

"Of course not. You have to be there for him when he needs it. You will understand when it will happen."

I sighed as I let the comfy pillows under my head do their role.

The conversation at Anteiku... had kept her up quite late in the night.

Midnight had passed by half an hour and her sore body was unable to rest because her mind was still fully awake and operational, unwilling to concede the unnerving issue.

Glancing at Wade, I noticed him silently snoring in his side of the bed and I started to think about the future, how it will all change.

Change was unavoidable, Noroi's death had been more than a good way to prove it and I was unsure what kind of twist it will be.

Will it be positive like when Wade had taken her in, or horrible like when her Guardian was killed?

I was no magician, yet I would have loved to have some foresight on the immediate future.

My body ached, demanding to get some deserved sleep and I was more than happy to comply as my trail of thought was degenerating into something way too deep to elaborate at that late hour.

My eyelids soon closed as I felt drowsiness fighting to take over my tired brain, yet it was in that very moment that the bed started to slightly tremble.

I opened quickly my eyes to see the cause of this and was surprised when I saw Wade shivering, fearful whispers leaving his mouth.

You have to be there for him when he needs it.

The words echoed in her ears as she slowly got closer to him, my hand settling on his shoulder.

The shivers slowly declined into nothingness as the young man regained a stable breathing and sleep.

I blinked. "Why?" It went unanswered, yet this was going to be the very question I will ask him tomorrow.

Now?

Sighing, my arms went around his torso and I put him close to me, a simple embrace to keep him away from whatever had threatened his rest.

Maybe Wade wasn't the strongest but he was mortal after all.

AN

New chapter and tomorrow I will post the definitive schedule for my fanfics.

About Wade: after few chapters of this story, I felt I was making the OC way too much of a Gary Stu, so I decided to give him a reason to not only be but also having been. I will explain next chapter where I finally shed some lights in the past of the seemingly mighty Wade Langley.

Next chapter going to be posted in few hours from now!

Review Q&A!

Mystic ToMatoo: Yep! Also thank you!

Tobi14: He is quite far from becoming Canon Souta, he is still too much young to train in the family's business.