Archive of Our Own ^beta

After hearing about how her friends' mothers would cook meals for them, Ichika wanted her mother to do so as well. In the 6 years she was born, it has always only been Papa cooking for her. Just once, she wanted to taste her mother's cooking.

"Mama! I wanna eat the food you cook!"

Touka's face paled at her daughter exclamation and she forced a smile before squatting down to Ichika's height. "Mama's not good at cooking so I can't cook for you, darling."

The girl pouted. "But my friends' mothers all can cook!"

Touka suddenly felt guilty about her lack of cooking skills. Just then, Kaneki walked into the room and Ichika ran over to her papa with a squeal. "Papa!"

He took his daughter's tackle with an 'oof' and hugged her tight. He shot a smile at his wife who returned the smile before grinning down at his daughter. "I heard something about wanting to eat mama's cooking."

"Mm! Actually, I wanna eat both of mama's and papa's cooking. Then we can compare!!"

Kaneki glanced over to his wife worriedly who only shook her head with a frown. "Your mama doesn't want to, Ichika. Maybe I'll just cook for you? Your favorite omelet rice."

"Eh????? I want mama's cooking too!!!" Ichika sat her bum on the floor, crossed her arms across her chest and started to sulk. "I want mama, mama, mama's!!!!"

The parents looked at each other worriedly and sighed in agreement. They just couldn't bear the sight of their daughter being unhappy since she was their darling baby after all. Kaneki patted his daughter's head. "Alright, but it'll take some time. Won't you go sit somewhere and play first?"

The little girl grinned and jumped up. "Okay!!!"

As they watched her run over to her toys at the living room, they turned to one another and Kaneki could see how panicked his wife was with the exasperated look on her face. "What am I going to do?!! I can't cook!" She exclaimed, but softly so Ichika wouldn't hear.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and smiled. "It's okay. I'll help you along the way. Get an apron."

—

Whilst Ichika played with her dinosaurs, the married couple walked around the kitchen, preparing the ingredients for their dishes and washed the cutlery. Touka stood at the counter, stared down at the ingredients that laid on the table before glancing to her husband. "What now?"

"Now, we'll start cutting them." Kaneki positioned himself behind her, placed his hands over hers which held the vegetable and the knife. His warm breath in her ear sent shivers down her spine and she elbowed him in the stomach. He choked.

"You're taking advantage of this situation to do this, aren't you?" Touka asked.

He squeezed her body in his arms tightly and grinned. "Yes. I'll take any chance to hug my beautiful wife."

She let out a happy sigh and allowed him to continue teaching her. With work and whatnot, they haven't been able to spend much time with one another. The cooking was coming along well, until Ichika spotted her parents leaning towards each other for a kiss and ran to them. "No! You're supposed to be cooking for Ichika!" She had her hands on her hips and lips out in a pout.

Kaneki chuckled because he thought that she looked like Touka when she was angry. "Papa!" She screamed, startling him into a flinch. Wow, she screamed like his wife did.

"Okay, okay. We'll stop! I'll do my cooking and mama will do hers, alright?" He asked softly.

The pout on her face turned into a grin. "Okay!!"

The little girl returned to her playing whilst Kaneki mouthed 'sorry' to his wife who gave him a pleading look and walked to his part of the kitchen.

—

After an hour, the dishes were finally done as the parents set them on the dining table beside one another. The left dish was Touka's which looked messy and inedible, while the right dish was Kaneki's which was full of color and looked delicious. Not caring about the appearance, Ichika's mouth watered and didn't notice her father holding her mother's hand because she was fidgeting anxiously.

"It'll be alright," he whispered and she relaxed slightly at his words.

"Thanks for the food!" Ichika exclaimed and stuffed her mother's horrible-looking dish into her mouth first. What happened next broke Touka's heart.

Her daughter wore a disgusted expression on her face and spat the food out onto the table. "Ewww! It's salty and spicy and bitter—"

"Ichika." Kaneki sternly said, and she kept her mouth shut. "It's rude to do that. Say sorry to your mother."

"Sowwy...but it's really bad, mama!" She apologized but still tried to justify her actions. But Touka had a sorrowful smile on her face and patted her daughter's head.

"I'm sorry mama can't cook and that you had to eat something so horrible. If you want to eat some nice food, get your papa to make it for you."

With that, she turned, headed for the bedroom and closed the door behind her. Kaneki frowned at his daughter, who pulled on the hem of his shirt. "I'm sorry, papa! I didn't mean to make mama sad!"

He placed a hand on her head with a hesitant smile. "Be a good girl and eat the food, okay? Mama cooked because you wanted to eat her food so make sure you finish everything, including my dish. Papa will go talk to mama, don't worry."

Kaneki entered their bedroom and closed the door gently behind him. He saw his wife standing in front of their cupboard with her head down. "Don't mind her. She's still a child."

"..precisely because she's a child that her words are not lies. My cooking really is horrible..."

"That's not true. Besides, you don't eat human food. It's normal that you don't know how to cook." He answered as he walked towards her.

"Still... I feel hurt. It makes me feel like I'm a failure as a mother. I can't cook, I can't do housework, I can't do anything right."

It was just one small drop, but he could see the tear that fell down her eyes and down her cheeks. He knew that she was speaking the truth, seeing as how she had one arm crossed below her chest, hand holding onto her arm. She did that whenever she was feeling insecure.

His arms came around her waist and he kissed her head. "It's okay. I'm not a perfect parent either. We promised that we'd learn together, right? To be good parents to Ichika. And I definitely did not fall in love with your cooking skills." He joked, earning a hit on the chest by his wife.

"This isn't a joke, you idiot. I'm talking about this seriously! I feel like I'm losing to you in the parenting thing. It's like you can do it better than me and it makes me feel stupid." She murmured, burying his face into his chest.

He pressed his lips into a thin line. "Yes, you may not be good in cooking, laundry, housework, and many other things—" he held back a grin when she hit his chest again. "But you only need to know that while I do have my strengths, I also have my weaknesses and you were the only one who was by my side in my weakest moments. You were, and still are my pillar of strength, and I love you for that. It's because of you that I was about to come back to you and Ichika."

Kaneki knew his words were working on her when he felt her smile against his chest. He cupped her cheeks and made sure to look straight into her teary blue eyes. "No degree of lack of cooking skills, housework and—Ow!" He groaned as another one of her punches landed.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?!"

Despite the statement, she finally had a smile on her face.

He cleared his throat. "No, I am not. To continue, I was saying that nothing would make me love you less. You are my beautiful wife and mother to my children. So don't be upset anymore, okay? It makes me sad when you're sad." He says, wiping away her tears with his thumbs.

"You cheater. Why ask when you know that I can't stay upset after those words? Fine, I won't be upset anymore. But you gotta make it up to me for being so good at everything."

His eyes crinkled from his grin and he played with her violet strands. "And what would that be, my darling wife?"

"Kiss me, husband." She purred.

The kiss he gave her made her want to cry from its gentleness and simultaneously made her want to ask more from him that night. The way he pulled back with a smug look on his face told her that he had kissed her so passionately on purpose.

"You ass. You better follow up with that kiss tonight!"

He smiled, pecked her on the nose before turning. "I will!"

--

After Kaneki exited the bedroom, he found his daughter standing there with her head down in shame whilst her hands squeezed with the ends of her rabbit t-shirt. He settled the woman in the room, now he had to settle this little girl. "Ichika, do you know what you did wrong?"

"I insulted mama's cooking." Ichika answered, eyes not leaving the floor.

"That's right and mama's upset about it. Listen, I know you wanted to taste her cooking but just know that even though your mama can't cook, she tried her best and it wasn't very nice to do that to her. She's not good in a lot of things but she puts in her best effort, be it in housework and cooking."

Tears brimmed in her eyes. "I know. I'm sorry, papa. I won't do it again."

He sighed and squatted down to make sure he was on eye level with his daughter. "It's good that you know your mistake. Meet me in the kitchen tomorrow at 8am. I'll teach you how to cook."

--

The next morning...

Touka groaned in frustration when she stretched out her arm and found her husband's side of the bed empty. She rose, washed up and changed clothes before heading out to the living room. As soon as she entered the kitchen, she saw Ichika running towards her with a plate of weird-looking thing on it. "Mama! I tried to make what you made yesterday but I failed! I'm sowwy for saying that your food tasted horrible!"

Tears flowed down her small face as she sniffed and Touka patted her head with a smile. "You're forgiven. From now on, we'll both learn how to cook from papa, okay?"

She looked to Kaneki who nodded at her with a warm smile. Ichika grinned widely and tackled her mother with a hug. "Mm!!"