She's small.

It's the first thing Kaneki thinks when he sees her looking into the store.

Dressed in patched clothes, with oily, unwashed hair, and dirt practically painted onto her, she stands barely a head over the window.

Thin too, Kaneki thinks as he continues to watch out of the corners of his eyes. His break comes fifteen minutes later and she's still outside.

"Touka-san, can I take the dated cakes out?" Kaneki asks carefully. The girl looks at him shrewdly and glances out to the urchin herself. She closes her eyes briefly and gives an irritated sigh. Never the less, she nods.

Kaneki is careful to keep his own fond smile out of sight lest she see and become cranky. Touka had a large heart for children, but not for annoying co-workers who should know better than to bother her.

Instead, the young man carefully boxes a few cakes and heads outside. Kaneki doesn't approach the young girl, but he does set them only next to the trash can and not in it. Then he heads back inside to finish his shift.

Outside, the little wraith has already run to the box of food in order to begin quickly scarfing it down with the help of a fork left 'accidently'. When Kaneki next looks out, it is just in time to see her finish licking the fork clean. Something soft settles in his stomach for the first time in several weeks. Even if he is a… ghoul now, he can still help others. Granted, he'd already helped with Hinami… but helping someone with non-ghoul relating problems made it all feel much better.

Kaneki blinks, and the little wraith is gone. It is almost as if she vanished into thin air, but Kaneki puts that thought out of his head. Not even ghouls can teleport, and the girl had eaten the cake so she couldn't be a ghoul.

Maybe she'll be back tomorrow…