"I'm going back to Anteiku tomorrow."

"Wait, Touka-chan. No." He stood up and grabbed her arm, preventing her from leaving, only to be yanked away immediately.

"I have enough of this."

"I won't avoid you anymore, I promise."

"How do I know you will keep your promise?" She stared into his eye, searching for affirmation.

"I…"

"See? You can't even prove yourself!"

"Don't leave me… please." He sounded a little too desperate despite avoiding her for a whole month.

"How irony you sound right now, when you were the one who was leaving me alone." She said bitterly.

"I'm sorry… how can I make it up to you? Tell me. I'll do anything." He pleaded. "Please. I'm begging you. Don't leave."

Touka let out a heavy sigh, she didn't have the heart to hurt him. Maybe Ayato was right about her feelings towards this man. Maybe, just maybe, she still loved him after all.

"Just… stop avoiding me. Include me in your life, in your ruling. Let me help you. I've ruled Anteiku with Ayato, I have the basics. Give me a chance, Kaneki." He sat on his chair and thought for a while before answering her.

"Alright then. I'll let you. I'll teach you about Re kingdom from tomorrow onwards. I promised your father that I will take care of you, so I will do it properly this time. I won't avoid you ever again." She let out a sigh before standing directly beside him, then punched his face until he fell off the chair.

"Ow! What was that for?!" He rubbed his swollen cheek, shocked of getting punched by his own wife.

He didn't have a chance to pull himself up as she straddled him, punching his chest lightly, her voice was a bit shaky.

"What are you, an idiot? Don't do this if you're unwilling to… Do this because you want to, not because my father asked you to... Don't obey his order if it is against your will... You should think of your own happiness first, idiot." She bit her lower lip, she was quivering.

"Touka-chan… but I want to." He smiled gently, warm enough to make her almost cried again.

"See? You're giving me hope again… I'm sorry I'm not a good wife. I stated clearly that I haven't forgiven you… That made you scared, wasn't it? You thought I hate you."

He shook his head. "It's alright." He caressed her right cheek to calm her trembling form, she leaned into his touch and put her hand on top of his.

"I thought I could live with it, but being alone in this one month, with you avoiding me, it made me rethink my words. In the end, it doesn't matter whether I have forgiven you or not, because no matter what my father will never come back…" She started to cry again, Kaneki immediately pulled her head down onto his chest, letting her weep while he ran his fingers through her hair and her back, soothing her.

"I miss him, Kaneki. I miss him so much." More tears fell onto his shirt but he didn't care, he kissed the top of her head and held her tighter.

"I miss him too. He was a good man." He remembered King Arata's death, how he cradled the dying king in his arms, how at ease he looked when he knew his daughter would be in good hands. Kaneki felt like crying too. He was planning to tell her how Arata died, but it would only make her cried more if he told her now thus he decided to tell her on another day.

They stayed that way for a long time, until Touka's crying turned into small quiet sobs. That was when she realised how comfortable she was lying on his taut chest, with his arms wrapped around her.

"I know my father liked you. He told me that several times. But, it's unfair of him to ask someone who doesn't love his daughter to be his wife. I'm sorry, Kaneki. You sacrificed a lot by fulfilling his request. You love Rize, don't you?" He chuckled, and she felt the vibrations on his chest.

"Not anymore. She rejected me three years ago."

"Huh?" Touka propped her elbow and stared at him.

"Yeah… She was in love with someone else."

"I see… That's- too bad."

"I loved her for five years but I guess she viewed me as a friend. I even cried on the night she rejected me. So lame..." He rubbed his cheek, feeling embarrassed.

"I was lamer, you know? I loved someone but he never noticed my feelings. He always chases after someone else." Kaneki paused for a while.

"Sorry to hear that. That guy is an idiot for not noticing your feelings."

'That guy was you, stupid.' She rolled her eyes. "Doesn't matter. I got over it, I think." She lay on him again mainly to hide her blush, but also because it was so comfortable for her. Her hand was resting on his chest.

"You sure you don't love him anymore?"

"Why? Are you jealous?" she perked up.

"No." She felt a pang of sadness when he said that. "I don't want to force you into this marriage if you're in love with someone else." She chuckled inwardly.

"Don't worry. I… I will try my best to make this marriage works as well. I… will try my best to fall in love with you too." Hearing that, Kaneki placed his hand on top of hers and kissed her forehead. He held her tighter.

"Touka-chan, as a king, I might die anytime. I might get assassinated. And you might as well. I might have some weird disease, or got poisoned, or died on the battlefield. Are you willing to accept me and taking the risk despite all that?" He needed to know the answer. He needed to know that she could accept him, even though he didn't tell her the truth about his dying condition.

Touka turned her hand around and entwined their fingers together.

"Idiot. When I accepted your proposal I've already considered all of those." He exhaled a sigh of relief, tears were accumulating in his eyes.

"Thank you, Touka-chan. Thank you." He couldn't stop the tears from falling down his face. That was when he realised that his black tears might fall as well. He tensed, then quickly pushed his body up into a sitting position, resulting in a surprise reaction from Touka. He quickly turned around and looked for his handkerchief on the desk to wipe his tears.

"…Are you crying? It's okay, you can cry in front of me, Kaneki."

He made sure all of the tears were wiped clean before facing his wife again. As expected, the stain on his handkerchief was black. He had to thank Tsukiyama for suggesting him wearing a black eyepatch recently, else he would have a hard time explaining why his eyepatch turned black.

"I'm alright. I'll see you tomorrow." He fixed his chair's position, sat on it and continued signing the approvals where he had left off previously.

Touka felt very weird why he suddenly acted that way. But she decided to let it go for now.

"Good night, Kaneki. Don't sleep too late. Your eye bag is looking worse than the last time I saw you."

"I won't. Night, Touka-chan." He smiled at her before continuing signing the approvals.

Touka stood there for a while, staring at him.

"Yes? Is there anything else?" She shook her head.

"No, nothing. See you tomorrow." She quickly left the study chamber.

'What was I expecting anyway?'

"Re kingdom consists of 24 wards altogether. The castle is in the 16th ward. 300 years ago there was a..." They spent three hours learning about how Re kingdom was formed. After a while, Touka's eyes seemed a bit unfocused.

"Shall we take a break?" Kaneki offered.

"Yes, please. Too much information. My brain is getting dizzy." He laughed.

"That's just like you, Touka-chan. But I know you will feel more bored if you read our history book yourself, that's why I'm explaining them to you."

"Yes, I know. Thank you for that, Kaneki." She smiled sheepishly. 'Ah, she's so beautiful.'

"My pleasure." He smiled back.

"Your Majesty, the lunch is here." Banjou knocked on the door and he came in with another servant, Jiro to bring in the lunch for his king and queen. Banjou's role was mainly to take care of Kaneki's well being, but he insisted on bringing food as well for his dear king.

When Kaneki told him this morning that the queen will study the basic of Re Kingdom with him, Banjou was glad. Glad because finally, they talked again. Finally, he stopped avoiding her.

"Thanks, Banjou and Jiro. You two may leave now."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Banjou lingered there for seconds and smiled warmly at the sight in front of him. His precious king, with his wife on the other side of the table, were having their meal together. His king seemed happy. For that, he was happy.

"Do you know how lonely I was eating alone for a month?" She sulked.

"I'm sorry…" Guilt was all over his face.

"Don't be. From now on, is it alright to eat together? If you're here, I'll bring my meal here. If you're in your chamber, I'll bring my meal there."

"Touka-chan… Okay. I'll wait for you then."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He nodded. She smiled before continuing eating her meal. He really loved it when she smiled. She looked so beautiful, and content. He planned to make her smile more often from that point on.

For two weeks, they studied and had meals together. Touka finally had a great understanding of Re's basic, people, law, economy, and resources. She also joined each meeting to learn more about how the ruling and court work in Re. But the part she loved the most was meal time.

They had lunch together in the study chamber when they were studying together. And whenever dinner was brought to her chamber, she would bring them to where Kaneki was so that they could eat together. Usually, he was in his study chamber too. Kaneki also waited for her to come.

By having their meal together, they got to talk a lot more. They became closer. They were already friends since eight years ago but due to those six years of avoidance after King Arata's death, they had a lot to catch up.

Touka mainly talked about Ayato and Uncle Renji. Sometimes she would mention her pets that she left back in Anteiku kingdom. Kaneki on the other hand mainly talked about Tsukiyama, Nishiki, Hinami and also about the kingdom. The kingdom was peaceful so far, but once in a while- there would be an assassination attempt. However, Hirako Take, the royal bodyguard of the one-eyed-King was excellent enough to prevent it from happening.

Touka realised that Kaneki never once talked about Hide. He tried to avoid mentioning his best friend as best as he could. She would not push him, but she heard the story from Hinami. Hide sacrificed his life to save him by falling off the cliff. Ever since then, he had been even more fragile compared to when he lost his mother.

She decided not to ask about Hide. But if one day he felt like talking about it, she would be all ears.

"Are you free after this? I would like to show you something." Kaneki seemed too excited for some reason.

"What else would I be doing? Of course I'm free."

"Great. Let's go."

They walked from his study chamber to the castle's garden. It was quite a long walk as the castle was enormous. That was when Touka realised that Hirako was always there. Following them discreetly, quietly, stealthily. She was able to notice him because as a former princess she was given a special training to sense if anyone was following her. Kaneki was not affected by it though, he must have been used to it. Hirako was his royal bodyguard after all.

The castle garden scenery never ceased to take her breath away. There was a fountain at the center of the garden, but deep green grass surrounded it, along with several pathways to each side of the garden. There were a lot of flowerbeds as well- lavender, forget-me-not, sunflower, osmanthus, tulips, and several rare flowers. Faunas such as cats, hedgehogs, squirrels, and butterflies were all over the garden.

"I've been here before, Kaneki. I had a month of doing nothing. I came here almost every day."

"…Right. Sorry." He scratched his neck while staring at the grass beneath him. She just shook her head.

"Stop apologizing every single time. But if it's the garden that you want to show me, I'm sorry. I've been to every nook and cranny of this place."

"No, I want to show you something new in this garden. Come." He took her hand in his and guided her to the south side of the garden. Touka stared at his warm hand. It was a lot bigger than hers, but it felt nice. She didn't want him to let go.

They passed by the lake, white swans were swimming everywhere and there were quite a few cygnets following their mother swimming. Water lilies and pink lotus were floating on the surface of the water. They walked further south.

"We're here."

Touka, despite unwilling to- had to let go of his hand to cover her mouth. She could not believe her eyes. Her rabbits, which she had as pets back in Anteiku kingdom, were here. All four of them were kept in a huge cage which filled with their necessities.

"My babies. How-?"

"Well, you talked about them sometimes, and I figured you must have cherished them very much. So I thought since you're going to live here, why don't I bring them to you. I asked Hinami to help me with this, Ayato approved and he assisted in relocating them as well." Touka pursed her lips together to control her emotions but failed. Tears of joy fell from her eyes. She missed her rabbits- or her babies, as she called it- so much.

"Thank you, Kaneki." She pecked his cheek, then hasten to embrace her babies. Kaneki raised his hand to where her lips had been.

Affection. It had been a long time since he experienced it. Or maybe he had never experienced it at all. Not even with his mother.

"I'm sorry, mother. I don't need… I won't ask for anything anymore! Please don't beat me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

But she continued to beat him. Again. And again. And again.

He closed his eyes, trying to conceal the painful memories from his mind. He didn't realise he was cracking his knuckles. Slowly, he forced himself to breathe steadily. 'Inhale… hold, exhale…'

'You have a wife now, don't ever think of dying again.'

'Take care of her.'

'Love her.'

'Make her happy.'

'Live.'

After a while, his mind seemed to get better. And his breathing became steadier.

He watched his beautiful wife hugging each rabbit. She looked joyful. She smiled genuinely while waving at him, calling him to come over and pet the rabbits with her. He hesitated at first, but eventually stepped into the cage and sat beside her.

"Kaneki, this is Taka, Maka, Mika, and Rika. Babies, this is Kaneki Ken. Say hi to your dad." She held Taka's head and made a slight bow gesture towards Kaneki. The rabbit was full black in colour and it reminded her of his old hairstyle.

"Hi dad, please take care of our family. Especially mom, alright?" She used a sweet, high toned voice, mimicking a rabbit.

Kaneki just laughed at her playfulness side. He lifted her chin up and kissed her forehead. Touka was stunned by his action.

"I will." He smiled, warmly.