Hey guys! Thank you so much for the reviews that have been supporting my story. I really enjoy reading them and they encourage me to hurry up and get the next chapter done on time lol. But, since I uploaded later than usual last time, I thought I'll upload this chapter early.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Since school is starting soon, I decided to make a schedule when I upload and when I study. Uploading would now be every week in the weekends (so I could have time to study). Thank you.

Chapter 10: New life II

(September 3rd, 7:32. 9 days since Kaneki's kakuja rampage)

"Hide…" Kaneki gently shook a drooling, snoring Hide on the couch.

This lazy ass, he sets an alarm on his phone but leaves it in his room so it wakes me up not him.

It was even stuffed in his underwear drawer.

"Come on Hide… we're going to be late. We should be in the 20th ward now!" … Fed up, Kaneki decided to knock the sleep talking boy off the couch. "HIDE!"

"H-huh?! Kaneki what is it? It's rude to wake someone up from their beauty sleep you know." Hide rubbed his eyes to try and clear his vision and get the sleep out of his eyes. "Woah! You look so tired, what happe-"

"THIS happened!" Kaneki shoved the phone in its owner's face, causing him to mouth an 'ow!' "This stupid thing kept me up all night. At least every 10 minutes you get a message or notification or whatever! And just when I drift into sleep, your Barbie alarm goes off."

Hide blushed a deep, deep red while Kaneki raised a twitching white eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

"O-oh, I think Touka put the Barbie ringtone on as a prank…h-haha."

"N-no, I don't care about that. You can have all the girly ringtones if you want. Why did you get so many notifications and why did leave your phone in your underwear drawer?" Kaneki, less annoyed but more interested helped his embarrassed friend up from the floor.

"Oooooh, so that's where I left it!"

Kaneki's eyebrow ticked in annoyance again.

"Sorry, I accidently left it there went I went to get a fresh pair of underwear." Hide scratched the back of his head and relaxed when Kaneki's face lost some of its deadly looks.

"Oh. So what's with all the notifications?"

"That's probably my classmate Mimi. We're doing a project together and I haven't really been able to attend so she's been sending me the updates and how the project's going. If so many messages are sent at once, then for some reason it spreads them out and sends one every so often." Hide grinned one of his many wondrous smiles.

When is he ever not smiling…

Kaneki found himself staring at Hide and his bright smile, examining every pixel of his being and noting the difference in features from when he last saw the blond. He did grow out his hair but it stayed the same length since meeting him in the sewers. Kaneki frowned noticing that that was the only major noticeable difference in his best friend other than growing a centimetre or two in height.

"Helloooo~? Earth to Kaneki!" Kaneki broke from his daydream from the voice of his best friend and a hand waving in front of his face. "Am I really that good looking that you end up staring at my face even when I just woke up?" The blond sarcastically asked while he put on a concerned face.

Kaneki snorted. "You keep telling yourself that Hide."

They both laughed as old, cherished memories came flooding back to both their minds.

The café was silent, only the sound of quiet breathing was audible to the two ghoul occupying the indoor counter.

Touka sighed and sat on the nearest table. "They sure are late. If they don't come soon then we'll have to start work without them."

"Give then a little more time Touka." Yomo replied, keeping on his signature poker face. "Maybe they'll show up in the next five minutes.

"Yeah but what's taking them so lo-"

The all too familiar bell rang, signalling a costumer.

"Sorry we're late."

"S-sorry, we-we're l-ate!"

The two best friends apologised, the half-ghoul scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile while the blond's hands rested on his knees, gasping for breath from the 30mph run the two just made. Kaneki ended up giving the blond a piggy back ride for most of the journey.

"Hey." Touka greeted as she slid off the table. She eyed the smiling half-ghoul and the human gasping for air. "I think I can probably guess what happened." She remarked with a smile as she made her way to the 'Staff only' door with Yomo following behind her.

"Anyway, we better hurry up and start the meeting because you two are 7 minutes late, and that's opening the café 7 minutes later which is about 2200 yen gone." Yomo deadpanned while he stared at the two.

Hide began to sweat more than he already was. I-Is he serious?

Kaneki chuckled at the man who soon gave a smile to show he was joking.

Hide exhaled and relaxed his body at the smile, only to have it tense up again. W-wait! Yomo-san made a joke?!

The four were in the break room. They sat on couches around a large coffee table. Kaneki sat next to Hide while Touka and Yomo sat across them on another couch.

The four cups of coffee were steaming on the coffee table while their owners stared down at their reflections. The story that Kaneki told to fill the gap in what happened when he was Haise Sasaki really hit them hard. Touka especially because she thought Kaneki was having a nice human life as Haise Sasaki.

"I'm sorry Kaneki." Kaneki looked up to see Touka staring at the coffee cup in her hands, face shrouded in guilt.

"Sorry for what? It's not like you're the one who acted like I'm just a pile of dirt, it was the CCG. Don't blame yourself Touka, because it really isn't your fault." Kaneki took a large gulp out of his coffee and noted how similar the taste is to Yoshimura's coffee.

"We knew that you were with the CCG and we left you there. We thought you were enjoying your life as a… human." Touka looked up from her coffee, her furrowed eyebrows now showed a hint of anger. "Who would've fucking known that they would treat you less than they would treat the ghouls stuck in Cochlea's hellhole."

"You said it yourself Touka, who would've known. I'm not sad or angry at any of you, I'm really grateful. Thank you so much for wanting the best for me." Kaneki was slightly shocked that they knew all about Haise Sasaki. "You all left me in the CCG because you wanted me to have the chance at living as a human once again. I'm grateful for the thought alone. There's no way that any of you would've known how messed up the CCG really is to make me their lapdog haha."

Looking down to his half-drunken coffee, Kaneki saw his saddened expression.

Wait, am I crying?

In his reflection, he noticed small droplets of tears welling up at the corners of his eyes and furiously blinked in an attempt to get rid of them.

"Yoriko joined the CCG less than 2 weeks ago to give us updates on you and their plans. We were really shocked when she said that you were in the list of the people who died during the war." Hide added, hopeful that it would make both Kaneki and Touka feel better.

Kaneki looked at Hide, surprised.

"She desperately tried to find information on your last sightings or anything related to your place in the war, but the information was either classified or useless." Yomo continued Hide's sentence with a solumn expression. "We wanted to search the 13th ward but the CCG were still cleaning up after the war, so we decided to ask some ghouls that used to live in the 13th ward if they knew anything even though there was a slim chance of us actually get some information, but we weren't planning to give up on you, Ken."

Kaneki eyes were wide, filled with shock. It struck him.

They still loved him even after he left them.

They still loved him even after he forgot about them.

They still loved him even after he joined the CCG and became the very thing that kills their kind.

But, why?

…Why?

Why would they go so far after all this… after all this time? Do they not see me as a burden, as traitor or am I missing something here?

Tears twinkled at the edges of Kaneki's eyes. The eyes that have just the smallest remains of emotion after seeing pain for so long.

Flashback:

"Marimo-san, I verified all the documents you sent me." A young man with white hair and small but noticeable black roots put a huge pile of paperwork on his boss' desk. "Can I head home now?"

"Head home? Hah! You're joking right?"

"But I finished today's work load…" 'I also did some of tomorrows work too.' The boy thought.

"It's not about quantity you shit-head it's about quality. You never are good enough, how did you even manage to be my subordinate with such a low IQ level?" The fat man spat at Haise while chewing on a hotdog.

Once again, the boy was humiliated in front of his colleagues. The giggles, whispers and pointed fingers brought tears to the edge of his eyes.

"B-but I don't understand sir, everyone else around me is doing the same thing. I just have to match the information with that on the computer to approve it. How could I-"

"So you just admitted that you don't know how to use a computer?"

"N-no, I was going to ask how quality even matters here beca-"

"It's either that or you can't read what's on the paper. I'm not surprised, ghouls never were really smart."

The whole room burst in laughter. Giggles became sniggering, whispers became shouting and pointing became throwing. The poor boy was insulted and assaulted countless times whenever he came to submit the work he spent four times as much effort in as his lazy superior, yet why does it always have the opposite effect than what plays in his mind? For some reason, he felt like he had experienced it before in his life. He would come home with amazing results but would get not so amazing rewards. But, when was that again…? The poor boy couldn't remember.

Even as days became weeks and weeks became months and months eventually became a year, the same routine would happen over and over again. Wake up at a ridiculously early time, get ready, go to work, do a ton of your work (and some of your co-worker's work because they're assholes), get scolded for doing well, get laughed at, do some more work or go on a ridiculously hard ghoul extermination mission, go to your cheap apartment to grasp the couple of hours you have left to sleep, barely get any sleep because of the stupid nightmares you get in this weird checkered room.

Haise didn't have much choice to retaliate. Though the little chance that he did have to retaliate, he would gladly take it.

"Are you alright? Do you need me to get call the medic squad or can you walk to the-" The beaten and bettered half-ghoul spoke to a bleeding comrade after a successful extermination of S rated nutcracker.

"Well duh! Can't you see I've got a broken arm?! Are you dumb or something?! If you didn't take so long to kill that bitch then I wouldn't be injured right now. God, why was I teamed up with a useless cunt like you?" That was the reply he got from the man he saved, then man he used his kagune and body to shield because of his inexperience. This ungrateful bastard caused him a lost hand, several broken bones, slashed abdomen, pierced eye and severed kagune.

"W-wha?! What the fuck? I should've known you'd be like this. I shouldn't have bothered shielding your ass. I saved your life, and you give me that attitude?! You didn't do shit in this fight!" Arguing with the man felt like losing 10 brain cells per second, and he was in no condition to move at all let alone waste valuable breaths to try and help a hopeless case.

End of Flashback.

The clouded eyes that haven't seen the truth in so long can only handle so much.

Kaneki's cheeks became the railways for the puddled tears that escaped his eyes. Finally he understood the magnitude of their loyalty and love. "I-I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I didn't know you guys were doing all this for… for me?" It was more of a question as if he was confused and wanted the obvious answer spelled out to him.

For me?

"We build :re for you Ken. If you were to ever return, we would gladly accept you and keep you safe." The smallest smile inched on Yomo's face.

"Well if it's too hard to understand then think about it as one big family to simplify things." Hide added.

Touka stood up and walked over to Kaneki, causing his head to look up and trail her movement. She squeezed in between Kaneki and Hide, not caring that the blond gestured about private space. She looked up to Kaneki's tear soaked face and hugged his arm. "Let :re help you build another life Kaneki, the life you haven't lived for 2 years. I know it's gonna be hard to build again but then again, that's why :re is here. Let's help each other out and restart, it'll help you realize just how important you are to us."

She gave Kaneki what could only be described as the most stunning smile he has ever seen. It was so graceful and matched perfectly with her shinning eyes and wavy hair, it helped him to see the beauty she is. Kaneki savoured that smile, engraved it into his memory. He's gonna need it for encouragement if anything. "Thank you… thank you. I know it's not much, but it's always been hard for me to show my emotion so for now I'll show it by expressing how I feel through those words. But don't worry, I won't be giving you petty thanks every day. I'll try my hardest every day to build the life that you've given me the sketch to. I think you'd prefer that instead."

I'm sure there's no need to express how happy the rest felt to know that the stubborn, suicidal Kaneki finally gave life a second chance.

"Are you ready? Feeling nervous? Don't worry 'neki, I'll be here if you need me." Hide nudged Kaneki while he was washing a plate.

"Hide, I've been a waiter longer than you have, you just started a month ago. So I think that should be my line." Kaneki flicked a bit of water from his hand to the less experienced waiter beside him. "Because I'm the boss of you as the manager said, you going to improve your coffee making skills." Kaneki gave a smug grin at the other's frown.

"No fun. You taking advantage of Touka and Yomo's break. And I still don't get how you're the boss of me when you LITERALLY just started working 5 minutes ago." Hide pouted.

"Well they do deserve the break for today, they have been working hard ever since they opened this café and they also need to catch me a spot in Kamii. I'd be grateful that they actually trust the two of us with the shop."

Hide grinned. "You're gonna use the name Neki Mukade right? Talk about switching it up." Hide read off Kaneki's name tag on his waiter's uniform.

"I know right? It was Yomo's idea. He just jumbled up my first name while adding an 'I', or he just took the last four characters un my last name and took my alias (Mukade/Centipede) as my surname. It's pretty creative but what if someone notices and joins the dots? I'm worried someone might recognise me." Kaneki finished drying the last cup and started wiping the counter from water splashes while Hide tasted his practice latte.

"Nah don't worry man, you look totally different with that pale skin, white hair and cloudy (dreamy) eyes. You even look different from your time as Haise." This latte is delicious.

"But what if someone notices my weird surname?"

"Trust me, I've seen weirder surnames."

"Like…"

"Like… umm… Saiko (crazy) and Barbie and stuff"

"Like Nagachika too." Kaneki joked.

"Maybe Kaneki? I think that's the weirdest one I've come acros-"

Hide was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing signalling a new costumer.

"Welcome to :re!" The two worker snapped out of their chat and welcomed two rich looking business men without silver briefcases in their hands (to which Kaneki sighed in relief).

"Thank you." The first man wearing mostly all black with rectangular glasses responded while the second one looking a lot scruffier just went to the closest table by the door.

Hide slowly edged to Kaneki who was putting enough filtering paper on the shelf for the day. "Can you ask them what they want please?" Hide whispered in his best friend's ear when he saw the two gentlemen began conversing.

"And why's that? I thought the plan was you take orders and I make the stuff until 2:00, then we switch roles." Kaneki raised an eyebrow at his weird friend.

"Can you take the orders first? I umm… I kinda served the messy looking one's wife a coffee that was made from expired beans and she got sick. It was an accident and I apologised but he still hates me…"

Kaneki smiled. "Sounds just like you." He grabbed his notepad and pen from his waiter's apron and went to grab the order not before he heard Hide sigh in relief.

"Hello, are you ready to order?"

"Can I get a cappuccino with an egg sandwich please? And what about you Huguo-san?" Kaneki jotted down the man's order while waiting for the other man to order.

"… A latte."

"Right, thank you." Kaneki noticed the scruffy man was staring at him, eyes narrowed as if he though Kaneki might put poison in his latte. Paying him no mind, Kaneki made his back to the counter while making a mental note.

He smells of a ghoul.

Why was he staring at me?

Better question, why is he with the human with glasses?

Whatever, none of my business.

"Here's the order." Kaneki ripped the page and handed it to Hide who got to work before the bell rang again.

"Welcome!"

"Thank you darling." An old couple entered the shop and took a seat near the far back.

"Hello Mr and Mrs Gounta! Mornin'!" Hide stopped making the egg sandwich and waved at the elderly couple with a smile.

"Oh hello Nagachika, good morning to you too." The old woman waved a shaky hand.

"Heh, still as bright as ever kid." The old man winked and the two took their seats.

Deciding not to bother questioning their relationship, Kaneki rested his elbows on the counter and watched the blond get back to work. He decided to give the couple some time to chose their order even if they seemed to be regulars. Hide was surprisingly efficient with the other order and had everything organised considering he was a messy character. As Hide finished the order, he put each item on a separate plate then on a brown serving tray.

"You better have made sure you used good coffee beans this time." Kaneki teased making Hide roll his eyes.

"I tried extra hard on his coffee, I hope he notices my hard work." Hide slowly handed the tray to his friend who shook his head.

"You should always try 'extra hard' for every customer, no short cuts Hide. Tut, tut." Kaneki playfully pulled a disappointed face.

"You sound just like Touka."

"Touka and I have two things in common: experience." Kaneki said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Whatever Neki." Hide retaliated with emphasis on the new name.

Kaneki made his way to the two gentlemen with the (fake) smile he used for every customer plastered on his face. "Thank you for ordering. Please enjoy."

"Thank you Mr. Mukade" Kaneki's smile grew genuine at the man's mention of his fake name. For some reason it felt strangely… exhilarating. Maybe it was the satisfaction of fooling people for thinking he was a kind young man rather than a one-eyed monster. Or maybe it was less of an evil satisfaction like finally being able to have a normal life again. He couldn't tell, maybe both.

"No problem sir." Kaneki replied before making his way to the old couple to take their order.

Thanks for reading! I wasn't sure about how this chapter turned out. I redid it twice but I'm still not happy with the result, but I hope it's still good for you guys.
I'd just like to clarify something: Yoriko and Hide know all about Anteiku and the ghouls in this AU.