I swear, everytime I try and write a short little one-shot and leave it open ended (THE WAY I LIKE IT!!), some random person I've never seen before comes along and writes the shortest review and I read it and then I feel an obligation to write more for that one person and it changes the entire feeling of the story!! I dont mind though, I survive off of reviews so leave as many as you can!

Enjoy!!! :)

-000-

They say that counting sheep is one of the best ways to help you fall asleep, but by the time I get to six hundred fifty nine sheep, I decide to call bull. I sit up wide awake and try to resist the urge to leave my soft warm bed but it's too soft and too warm. It's swallowing me slowly and I can't breathe.

Finally I jump out of it, unable to handle it anymore. I kick the bed in anger. "Stupid bed." I mutter to myself.

Looking around my room, I search for an alternative to what I'm about to do but there is none. My room is more bare than normal because of the dark so I can't really look for anything to do anyway. As I put on a hoodie, I tell myself that it's only because I can't sleep. As I pull on my shoes, I convince myself that he can't hear me. As I listen for Hinami's rhythmic breathing, I ask myself why I can't just leave my thoughts of Kaneki in the back of my mind.

I don't hear her sleeping but I never can so I take that as a sign that she is asleep. I open the door to my room with a creak and tiptoe quietly out of it. In the front room, there's a blanket draped over the bird's cage so even if it's awake, it doesn't see me. I open the door and close it back gently behind me, trying to get the feeling the are chasing me caught in the door.

No such luck.

-000-

There's a peaceful silence across the night time city that I'm not used to even though I've done this far too many times to count. It sounds like darkness with the muffled sounds of a city still existing. A car driving here, a door opening there, footsteps upon footsteps my ghoul hearing picks up everywhere.

This all started after my outburst in Anteiku two weeks ago. The Manager had a little talk with me the next day when I showed up for work. He felt that I was working too hard without having a break, between work and school he felt that I didn't have enough time any type of relaxation so he basically forced me on a stay at home vacation.

Of course he prevented me from working during a time where Yoriko was busy with balancing her new job and school like I am, or like I was. So everyday after school I've been coming home and trying to spend more time with Hinami and that hasn't been going well. As it turns out, besides being orphaned ghouls and having a fondness for a certain idiotic half-ghoul, we don't really have too much in common.

She spends most of the time I'm in school and after reading and teaching herself to write and that's not a bad thing at all but she doesn't spend anytime just being a kid frolicking or whatever. Any time that she's not doing that, she's either playing with that demon bird or she's at Anteiku with everyone else, the only place I'd rather not be right now.

With my options of home entertainment exhausted, I was putting all my effort into not thinking about Kaneki which didn't help at all. I ended up spending all of my waking moments thinking about him, imagining us being together and being together if you know what I mean. I didn't do the immature things that most teenage girls do when they're in love. I wasn't writing Touka Ken with little hearts around it all over notebooks or anything cliche like that, but I mind as well have been doing it in my mind.

The first night The Manager exiled me to vacation I couldn't sleep, so I put on some warm clothes much like I did tonight and I went for a walk. That wasn't the only night I did so either. The night after that I stole away into the night, away from the walls of my house that I got sick or looking at. Each night I wasn't quite sure exactly what my destination was but I think somehow, subconsciously, I knew.

Every night I found myself in the same place as if somehow, it were drawing me to itself. There was nothing wrong with that place though, it was bursting with people during the day but it was quiet during the night and that's all I needed. A quiet place that I could think clearly and whisper to myself the things I had been scared to think all day.

When I walk into the park this time, I'm not alone. There's a man jogging through the park with earbuds on and a bottle of water in his hand. He's jogging toward me as I sit on my normal bench and sits down on the bench for a break at the same time I do. I glare at him intently willing him to leave but he only drinks his water like it's trying to run away from him.

After he finishes guzzling his water, he looks over at me with surprise. He almost spits out his water. "Oh, hi! I'm sorry, I didn't notice that there was someone sitting next to me."

I nod to him and look away, waiting for him to leave.

"What's a little lady like you doing out this late at night, this city may seem peaceful, but it can be be quite dangerous."

I turn back to him, the expression unchanging on my face. "I could ask the same of you."

He laughs. It's not just a chuckle either, it's a full body, throw your head back kind of laugh. "Okay, I won't force you to say. Let me guess, you're having some type of boy trouble and you can't sleep so you decided to take a walk?"

I feel my eyebrows scrunch together betraying the inner feelings that I'm trying to hide. "How did you know?"

He stands up without answering at first. "There aren't many reasons why someone of your age would be out just to come sit on a bench. Most of the reasons concern matters of the heart, but other reasons include ditching your group of friends because they aren't really your friends and considering your cold demeanor, you probably don't have many of those. Don't worry I'm in the same boat as you're in regarding both situations."

"You're in love with a girl that isn't around to notice you?"

He does his full body laugh again, I'm starting to think that's the only laugh he can do. "Yeah, something like that." He starts stretching again while I ponder all the things he has said. "Let me give you some free advice, if your feelings for him are going to make you lose sleep at night and meet random wise strangers at the park, make sure he is worth it."

He is, I know he is. I give him a questioning glance. "Is she worth it?"

He smiles without laughing this time. "I'm here at the park aren't I?" Without waiting for my response, he begins his jog again.

Once he's completely out of sight, I look around to see if there's anyone else hiding in the shadows. After I've confirmed that there's no one around, I do what I came here to do. I sit up on the edge of the bench with my hands squeezing the life out of each other and eyes staring at the ground. I take in a deep breath and whisper quietly in a weak voice.

"Kaneki,"

A gust of wind that seemingly comes from nowhere, blows through the park and causes the swing set to move and squeak. Besides the sound of my own voice, it's the only thing a hear. The cars have stopped, the sirens and horns cease. There is nothing separating my gentle words and what I imagine is his listening ear.

After a few more seconds of squeaking swings, I continue. Maybe it's just the fact that I fantasize about actually telling him these words that makes this feel so right, that makes me feel so close to him. Every night for the past two weeks, I let him hear words pinging around my brain, I feel him hear them. I make them reach his heart because it's too painful imagining that they won't.

It's too painful imagining that they don't.

"Kaneki, please come back to us soon, this universe feels so empty without you."

I have nothing else to say, everything that I wanted to tell him has been told and I feel more free than I have in a long time. At least, that's how I feel before someone calls out to me.

"Onee-chan."

I turn around so quick the world is still blurry and gray before I can focus my eyes. The first thing I notice is her brown hair, then the rest of her features come into focus. I release the breath I've been holding and whisper her name as if I'm still speaking with Kaneki. "Hinami."

She, being the little girl she is, skips over to me like it's normal for us to meet each other at the park in the dead of night.

"What are you doing here?" I ask her.

"I followed onee-chan here."

"Hinami, you can't just leave in the middle of the night like this."

"Why not?" She pouts "You do it every night and I can't sleep if you're not there!" She was serious and a little upset before but now her facial features have become soft and they have made her look like the little kid I remember. "Onii-san already left and now onee-chan,..." She sobs a little and tries to wipe up her tears with her little hands.

I didn't think that she knew I was gone every night much less that she would care enough that she couldn't sleep without me there.

Sigh. "Come on sit down next to me." I gesture to the seat next to me and she plops herself down on it. I put my arm around her and continue. "I'm sorry, I've been so caught up with thinking about all my problems I've been forgetting about you. I promise that I won't do that again."

She hiccups from her tears. "But onii-san…."

"Don't worry about him, he went to fight the Doves that hurt us. He had to leave because he didn't want them to find us with him. He's protecting us."

"I miss him." She says simply.

With those simple words, she has dredged up so many different emotions that I can't control which one I feel at any time. I remember when I first told him that I missed him. I push those feelings down so I can concentrate on Hinami.

"Do you miss onii-san?"

I push down a swell of emotion. "Yes," I choke out. "Yes I do."

It's quiet for a moment while we both get our feelings under control. I can't believe how my feelings for Kaneki have affected Hinami, I have to be much more careful. Just because she spends all her time reading, doesn't mean she doesn't need me.

"When will onii-san come back to us?"

I had a feeling she would ask that question and I've been preparing myself for it but I still don't have an answer. "I don't know." plain and simple, I don't know. Then an idea pops into my head. "We have to help him though."

"Help him? But how?" She asked incredulously.

"You and I can't fight the Doves, but we can help him by giving him something to fight for. We can make a home full of people for him to come back to after he's finished fighting, that will really make him happy." I look down at her face to gauge her reaction.

She smiles back at me but it looks like a sad smile. It's a smile that says, it's okay, I know you don't know everything, but I will wait here for him with you until the end of eternity.

"That's all I need." She said.

-000-

The figure watched them from the shadows with longing. Aching to gather Hinami in his arms, lusting for Touka's sweet scent to fill his nostrils, eager to be with his family once again. He watched her for so long, listening to her words with his ghoul hearing and carefully protecting her from danger.

No more! He thinks to himself. No more! I can't take it anymore!

He begins to step out of the shadows but it's too late, his moment has passed. His chance is gone. They both are standing now, hand in hand, walking away from that bench, away from this moment.

Away from his moment.

He watches them go with sadness but relief. They are okay, they will live on.

"Soon touka," He said to himself. "Soon I will fill your universe to the brim and beyond." The figure then slinked off into the night, solemnly and gravely, but with just a little more hope and determination in his eyes.

-000-

So yeah, im turnin this into a whole multi chapter fic. I know that it's really gloomy right now but it will get more and more fluffy by the end so stay tuned!!

This chapter is slightly based on the song Home is such a lonely place by Blink 182, I played in in the backround on a loop as I wrote this chapter lol!

Read, Review, Follow, Favorite!!! :)