"Ow!" Kaneki gasped as Touka elbowed him in the gut. "T-touka-san!" Kaneki gasped in pain as he grasped his side.

The dark-haired girl gave him a 'Look', before moving on to bus some tables. It took Kaneki only about a second to dart after her. Kaneki might not eat much now days, but he still had some sort of self-preservation instinct and leaving Touka (of all people) mad at him was not good for his continued heartbeat.

"Touka-san, what's wrong?" Kaneki asked with trepidation. Had he not washed everything up yesterday? Did he make someone's expresso to strong and they got onto Touka instead of him?

Touka paid Kaneki no mind as she efficiently rounded up the plates and cups from a recently abandoned table. Turning she shoved him aside before trouncing her way back behind the counter. Kaneki grimaced and followed her.

"T-Touka-san, please tell me what I've gone wrong?" Kaneki pleaded. "Whatever I've done I can't fix it or properly apologize until I know what I've done." Thankfully, his pragmatic 'I can't fully appreciate your anger until you tell me what I've done' got through. Touka sighed, set the tray down, and turned to look at Kaneki with fire in her eyes. He gulped.

"Look outside, Kaneki. Tell me you don't see a problem with this." Touka hissed dangerously.

Kaneki blinked and carefully glanced outside. A few regulars were enjoying a meet up on the veranda, some pigeons were roosting the awning, and a little plash of blue sat next to the window- oh. Kaneki glanced up uncertainly at Touka.

"I'll feed her when I go on break." Kaneki assured her. For a moment, he thought he'd fixed the problem. Then he realized that no, he had not fixed it, he had only further incited Touka's ire.

"That's the problem, you idiot!" Touka growled as she advanced a step forward. "She doesn't need to be fed she needs to go home. She's a human for Pete's sake! Somewhere out there is family either missing her, or that would happily make room for her. She doesn't need to be on the streets where she could be picked up by a ghoul or even worse." Touka gestured about angrily with her hands. Kaneki's eyes widened. Oh. He hadn't expected this. Touka wasn't mad at him because he hadn't fed the street child yet, she was mad because he was… in some way, enabling her to continue to live on the streets. In Touka's mind, the girl was human and thus didn't need to be on the street, both because of the inherent danger but also because, as a human, she could be safely adopted. The little girl would be able to be absorbed into a human family and taken care of in a way that ghouls would never be able to risk unless with their own flesh and blood. Touka didn't see any reason for the girl to be on the streets and thus didn't like it when Kaneki helped her stay on the streets.

"I-I'm sorry." Kaneki murmured, at a loss for words. "I didn't think of it that way." Touka's gaze darkened with something Kaneki couldn't possibly place.

"No, you didn't." She brushed past him. "I'm taking the rest of the day off. Fix this by tomorrow." Touka opened the 'Employees Only' door but paused partway through. "Look. I'm not saying to be mean to her, or tell her to scram, but she really does need to go home. I don't particularly care how, but its not safe for her to be on the streets like this. Ghouls aside, there are still some really dangerous human monsters that could easily take a little girl like her unawares. She needs to go home; even if its not a very nice home it has got to be better than here." And with that, Touka fled the café.

Kaneki stared at the closed door for a moment what Touka had said danced around his brain. On one hand, Touka had a point. It really wasn't safe for the girl on the streets. Anteiku worked to keep many ghouls in this ward fed, but even they couldn't stop all the ghouls in this ward from hunting live humans. (Apparently fresh human tasted different… and Kaneki didn't want to think about that.) And if the ghouls didn't get her, there were still human traffickers and average human degenerates to worry about.

Therefore, it was especially unsafe for the street girl to hang around one place all the time. However, Kaneki couldn't agree with the last portion of portion of Touka's statement. His own aunt… Kaneki had never been so grateful to Hide as when he had stayed under his aunt's care after his own mother's death. The woman had never physically touched him, but the influence of her words and the sharpness of her gaze had sunk into Kaneki's skin like a poison. His grades had dropped and in grief and pain his heart had fled to a dark place. Only Hide had gotten him through that dark time by literally spending every available moment dragging Kaneki out of that apartment and into the light of the outside world.

Kaneki didn't want to send anyone back into the dark. Granted, many kids did run away for stupid reasons and some kids even just got lost and didn't know how to get back. But if the child really didn't have a nice home and family to return to, Kaneki knew he couldn't bear to send her back there.

Living like that… it wasn't really living. It was surviving and even Kaneki knew that survivors were really only the people too stubborn to die from mortal wounds.

He needed to talk to the girl. Kaneki didn't really know what he'd do, but he also knew that he could never allow her to return to a verbally or physically abusive home.

So... yeah. I started a new fic (begins whistling innocently) because I got bored of Amara's arc in Claws and Magic and needed a break. But... at least this one is only a tiny fic? Really! it is! Like, not going to even get more than 20,000 words if I have my way. Hopefully.

If it doesn't decide to do like To Be A Hero and grow exponentially to the point of spanning several series.

Yeah. Its supposed to be short, so please cross your fingers and start praying that I can actually keep something small. Cuz I'll need it.

Anyway, if you appreciate my hard work, please review. If not, leave.

~Blitza