I'm aliiiiiiiive! Midterms are over, Spring Break has begun, and I'm ready to spend it being trash! So this is the sick chapter, poor munchkins suffer.

[Stay tuned for A/N]

Enjoy~

Touka glanced at the clock as she finished making the bed, debating whether or not she had time to take a bath. It was 7:15 am and she didn't have to wake the twins until eight, so she grabbed some comfortable clothing for the day and disappeared into her bathroom. Forty minutes later, she emerged out of the bathroom fully dressed and fastening her necklace around her neck, ready to rouse her sleeping kids.

Stepping into the room, Touka was surprised that they were still asleep. 'That's weird... Miyu is usually awake and waiting by now.' Shrugging, she picked up scattered toys and put them back in the toy box, giving them a few extra minutes of sleep. As she was closing the lid, she heard a whimper coming from Miyu's side of the room.

"Mama..." Miyu, laying on her side, cracked her eyes open and groaned. She didn't look good; her eyes were bloodshot, her nose was running, and she was sweating uncontrollably. "Why is it so hot, Mama?"

Touka moved to her daughter's bed, and placed a hand on her forehead. It was unusually warm, so Touka left to get the thermometer from the bathroom.

"Hold still," she said. Turning it on, Touka wedged the tip of the thermometer into Miyu's ear and held it there until it beeped. She looked at the temperature,

"38.5... Well you are definitely sick," she mumbled. She stroked Miyu's hair as she started coughing. Once Miyu's coughing fit was over, she quietly walked to the other side of the room to wake Minoru. She put her hand on his shoulder to shake him, but she noticed that Minoru was warmer than usual. Gently pulling him over onto his back, Touka sighed. He looked almost as bad as his sister.

"Of course you're both sick," she mused. "Twins do everything together..."

Minoru woke up when he felt himself being pulled by his shoulder. Sniffling, he looked up at his mother and grabbed onto her shirt. "Mama, I'm hungry."

"Okay Minoru, we'll see what we have," she promised. Carefully scooping him out of the bed, she settled him on her side and went back to Miyu's bed, letting the girl's arm wrap around her neck so she could lift Miyu up to her other side. With the twins safely tucked against her sides, Touka left the bedroom and walked to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Touka sat the twins at the table and opened the refrigerator, grabbing the first package she saw. Carrying it to the counter, she unwrapped the meat and chopped it into pieces small enough for children. Dividing the chunks into two bowls, Touka found two forks and went back to set the bowls in front of the twins.

"Tanks, Mama!"

Minoru dug into his food happily, shoving piece after piece into his small mouth. He was eating so fast that the blood and juice from the meat splattered all over his face, making Touka chuckle as she wiped his face with a wet napkin. Throwing the napkin away, she looked at Miyu as she pushed the chunks around with her fork, not eating any.

"Miyu?" Touka patted her back soothingly. Miyu looked at her mother, teary-eyed.

"My tummy doesn't feel good," she whined. "It won't let me eat."

"It's okay, Miyu, we can save it for later," Touka told her, picking up her bowl and placing it in the fridge.

She sighed, beginning to worry about Miyu even more; it was rare for her to have stomach problems. Sitting at the table once more, she tried to figure out how they even got sick. 'I know they didn't eat any human food, so that can't be it...' she mused. 'So the only other way they would get sick is if they were around somebody who was already sick. But who was already sick that was around the twins?' Touka drummed her fingers on the table, watching Minoru eat his food. 'You know, he kind of looks like my father... That's it! Hinami and Ayato had the twins a few days ago; I think Hinami was sick.'

"Mama, I'm done," Minoru announced, pushing his now empty bowl towards his mother.

Touka picked up the bowl and set it in the sink to be washed later. 'Since Ken left to some stupid book fair thing, he can do the chores when he gets home.' Spinning around, she studied her children. Minoru seemed to be feeling slightly better; he must not have spent that much time around Hinami. On the other hand, Miyu looked just as bad as she did when she woke up, maybe even a little worse. The poor girl could barely hold her head up.

"Maybe you two will feel better if you bathe," Touka suggested. Minoru nodded while Miyu just closed her eyes, her head lolling to one side. Touka scooped her up from the chair before she could fall and turned to Minoru, but he shook his head. Shrugging, she said, "Let's go make you clean toddlers!"

While the tub was filling with warm water, Touka undressed Miyu and Minoru. Minoru jumped into the tub when he was satisfied with the water level, grabbing his bath toys. Touka carefully lifted Miyu and slid her into the tub, her back leaning against the side.

Picking up the baby shampoo and body wash, she first bathed Minoru since he would be able to get out faster. She massaged shampoo into his hair as he played with his toys and then had him stand up so she could wash his body. When she was finished, she grabbed his favorite towel- it looked like a huge open book- and held it for him while he got out of the tub. Wrapping the towel around him, she told him to sit on the toilet until she was finished washing Miyu. Repeating the same process used for Minoru, Touka noticed that Miyu's temperature didn't seem to be getting any better. Lifting her from the tub and wrapping her up in her bunny towel, the trio walked into the twins' bedroom and got dressed.

"Do you want to take a nap?" She asked once they were in clean clothes. Minoru shook his head.

"Will you read a story?" he begged, pulling out one of his favorite books and holding it out to her.

Touka sighed comically, "I guess I can read you a story, Minoru. You've been such a good kid lately."

Minoru giggled and scrambled up onto his bed, patting the space next to him. Taking the hint, Touka sat next to Minoru, who immediately laid his head against her thigh, and adjusted Miyu so that she was curled into her side.

"My Many Colored Days," she said. Clearing her throat, she began to read aloud, "Some days are yellow. Some days are blue. On different days I'm different too..."

"... But it all turns out all right, you see. And I go back to being... me." Touka closed the book and looked at her children. Both were sound asleep, Minoru's head in her lap and Miyu cuddled into her side with Touka's arm around her. 'Well now I can't go anywhere now...' Tossing the book onto the nightstand, she softly rubbed Minoru's back as she stared into space. 'The first time they get sick and there's nothing to make them better. If only medicine was one of the things ghouls could have...' She yawned. 'Might as well sleep too.' She leaned her head on Miyu's and fell asleep listening to the sound of the twins breathing and still rubbing Minoru's back.

Kaneki walked through the door late afternoon and wondered why it was so silent in the apartment. 'Miyu is usually still running around at this time...' Removing his shoes and setting his bag on the kitchen table, he padded down the hallway, following the sound of loud breathing and small coughs. Peeking his head into the twins' bedroom, he smiled. Touka had shifted at some point to lay down with Minoru's head pillowed on her stomach and Miyu's head tucked under her chin, sleeping somewhat peacefully.

Silently making his way towards them, he stood next to the bed and reached to rub the twins' heads softly. As his hand moved over Miyu's forehead, he frowned at her warm temperature. Moving his other hand to Minoru's forehead, he noticed that he was warm too, although less than his sister. 'They must have gotten sick, poor things.' He leaned over and kissed their heads softly before looking at his wife. He stroked her hair lightly and kissed her cheek, grinning when she mumbled in her sleep and shifted around.

'Well, since she had to take care of both of them by herself, I'll do the dishes for her!' And so he turned and left the room to begin washing the dishes that were left dirty for him in the first place.

Ghouls don't get sick very often, but when they do it's never mild. And since they can't take any medicine to help, they are forced to use other methods and endure the sickness until it went away. One of the best ways being to sleep it off and it looked like Touka had taken that to heart, sleeping alongside her sniffling toddlers.

What did you think? I wasn't sure what all to have them do since I always take medicine so I've never had to go through a cold without it.

The book that they read is My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. It was my favorite Seuss book when I was little and it's still my favorite to this day. If you've never read it before, you can find the text online but I recommend finding the book. Cause then you see all the pretty colors and whatnot.

Thank you for reading and putting up with my shenanigans! I couldn't continue this without you guys! c: Feel free to leave a review saying what you think or what you'd like to see in the future!

*Announcer voice* Next time on Reality Kick... Kagune.

With love,

Lau ( ˘ ³˘)

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