Author's Note: Well, look who is back with another wholesome TG story. I stayed gone shorter than I thought I would.

Ichika was a very possessive child.

The phase that had begun as quirky and cute had quickly turned troublesome when she had bit her uncle Ayato with all five of her teeth after he dared to touch her favorite bunny ragdoll, Bunny-kun.

Both Ken and Touka had put in extra effort after that to instill in her that she shouldn't bite to get her way.

Though she obeyed, Ichika had been thoroughly unimpressed with the lesson, so when a few months later she just so happened to learn the word "mine" she decided that since acts of physical violence were frowned upon, declaring something as hers and hers alone was the best workaround.

And with that, the terrible twos had truly begun.

Suddenly everything in the small Kaneki home turned into Ichika's. The television? That was hers. The rug at the front door? That was hers too. The replacement lightbulb Ken had in his hands as he unscrewed the blown one? Both of those were definitely hers and she expected them to be handed over to her now.

To Ken, it was cute in an odd baby way. To Touka it was a little embarrassing. "People will think we've raised a spoiled brat," she had hissed quietly to Ken as she had scooped up Ichika who was pointing at the Shiba Inu puppy in the petshop window. As the parents walked away from the side shop, Ichika had begun to clamor and climb desperately over her mother's shoulder, pointing, now teary-eyed at the dog.

"Mine!" she said once more, at which time Ken had seen that her lip had begun that tell-tale quiver.

"Ichika, please... " Touka begged, trying her best to calm her daughter. Touka's face was beginning to turn red from the attention her family was receiving. Curious looks, tsks of disapproval. Can't they control their child?

"Ichika if you don't -" Touka began but it was no use.

It had begun.

The Ichikaing.

To call the noise coming from Ichika a cry would have been an understatement. It was even more than a wail - more like a siren call from the deepest depths of hell. The sound was surely supersonic, breaking the sound barrier. To accompany the squalls were insistent declarations of "MINE! MINE! DOG MINE!"

Ken sped up his walk to the car, his hand in laced with Touka's as the pair tried their best to get as far away from the dog as possible.

By the time they reached the car Ken's head was pounding with a headache and Touka wanted to disappear, her face hot with embarrassment and shame. Ichika's face was streaked with tears as she readied herself for the second sound assault despite the dog being nowhere in sight.

The night when Ichika had tired herself out and finally, thankfully, fallen to sleep Touka had cornered her husband. "She can't keep doing this! But I don't know what to do." she looked almost frantic as she poured her gaze over the titles of Ken's parenting books, looking for one that might miraculously have the answer. "We're not bad parents." Though it was a statement, Ken could tell in her own way Touka was asking him: Are we bad parents because we can't even control our out-of-control two years old?

Of course not.

Motherhood meant so much to Touka that Ken could understand why when things went a little left of the center she worried and stressed so much. But, he told her, he knew what to do.

At least he hoped he did.

And from that day a new course of action had begun. Much like Operation Don't Bite Uncle Ayato, this too involved small bribes. If they didn't want Ichika to attack someone who touched her things, then instead they would reward her when she allowed others to touch them. A kiss on the cheek, a toss in the air, a slice of apple.

The Anti-Mine Mission was similar, in a way.

Ichika declared something hers? Depending on what it was she would receive a different answer. If the rambunctious toddler, for example, declared papa's toothbrush hers, one parent would correct her with a "No, that's daddy's...but this -" and they would get something dear to the child, normally Bunny-kun, "is Ichika's. It's nice, isn't it? Can I play with it?" At first, the answers had always been a whiney "No 'smine," but with time, and dedication the answer slowly morphs into a "Yes, can share."

And then many of Ichika things had slowly gone from being "mine" to being "ours".

By the next time that the small family walked by the puppy in the window again and all their daughter did was point and giggle, it felt as if a weight has been lifted off of the parents' shoulders.

They may have discreetly exchanged high-fives.

The Curse of the Mines had been broken and both felt as if the hardest days of the terrible twos were drawing to a close.

And this is where Ken found himself, relaxed and at ease with his daughter who was curled up by his side as he read from one of her favorite books. There had been no fussy and angry little eyes glaring at him for touching what was hers - there was only a well-behaved little girl listening to her father's voice intently yet half-asleep as she sucked her thumb.

Ken knew Touka was trying to break Ichika of thumb sucking, but given how cute the little pudding-haired angel looked right now Ken couldn't dare disturb her as her eyelids drooped lower and lower.

At the last word he softly closed the book and looked down, expecting to see Ichika zonked out, mouth agape and drooling but instead he looked down to see her staring up at him inquisitively with eyes just like his own. "Not sleepy?" He asks softly, brushing her hair behind her ear. She shakes her head, her thumb still in her mouth.

Before he can ask her to be a big girl and remove her thumb from her mouth, she does it herself.

And points.

"Mine," she says the dreaded word with no room for argument.

As she points directly at Ken. "Papa mine."

When Touka arrives home moments later she takes one look at her husband, head in his hands, sobbing loudly, then at her daughter who is sitting on the carpet watching her weeping father and Touka - well, Touka almost doesn't want to know.

When Ichika notices her mother she gives her a look that Touka can only describe as downright mischievous. Like the little toddler now knew a big secret, or perhaps had discovered the answer to life itself and wasn't privy to sharing the knowledge with her mother.

With a toothy grin, Ichika points at her mama and says "Mama mine" and waits, expectantly.

And suddenly the scene before her clicks. Touka sighs deeply, scooping up her daughter, as she rubs the now heaving Ken on the back, soothingly, hoping he doesn't throw up on the carpet.

"You can't do your papa like that, Ichika-chan. He's a very emotional man," Ichika giggles as if she knows exactly what her mother means.

With time Ichika grows and matures, leaving most of her mischievous ways behind her. She grows into a kind, and beautiful young woman who many would say was without a selfish bone in her body. The tales of her being a possessive toddler are nothing more than recollections her parents now tell with fondness only to embarrass their daughter.

Really, Ichika isn't sure what's more embarrassing: that her parents insist on telling those stories of how she was such a greedy little girl to any prospective partners she brings over or the fact that even now, as a grown woman with a little brother five years younger than her, that possessive little girl in her still comes out from time to time.

"They were my parents first." She reminds her brother, her tone deathly serious right as she flicks him on the head to assert her dominance as the older, superior sibling.

Sometimes Ichika could still be a possessive person. Especially when it came to her hardworking mama and her crybaby papa.