The Way to a Heart

"No, don't add that much salt," Kaneki said as he stopped Amon from putting in another pinch. He waited a few minutes before announcing, "And that should be enough. The soup is done."

"How do you know that?!" Amon nearly yelled.

Kaneki had to stop himself from grinning. He had been watching as Amon slowly grew more and more annoyed by his failures at making every other dish, and was waiting for the pent-up emotions to burst out.

Switching off the flame, he smiled serenely. "It's only a matter of experience, Amon."

Taking a spoonful of the soup, he turned to his five-year-old daughter, who was happily playing with her toys on the kitchen floor. "Would you help Papa for a moment, Ichika?"

"Okay!" the girl said happily, putting down the blocks she was holding and then walking over to him.

Touka would be furious if she learnt that Kaneki had let Ichika inside the kitchen along with all those little toys of hers—she believed he spoiled their daughter too much, and with good cause—but thankfully his wife was unaware of this, being on bed rest in the last month of her pregnancy.

She wasn't the only expectant mother he knew, though.

Ichika swallowed the soup and gave a firm nod. "It's good!" She then looked at Amon. "Do you want to play my cooking games, Mister Amon? They're easier than what Papa does."

Kaneki stifled a laugh as Amon, with some effort, pushed aside his annoyance to pat Ichika's head and tell her that it was alright.

A week ago, Kaneki and Amon had been casually talking over the phone when the conversation turned to their wives, and Amon revealed that as Akira was often tired since she had become pregnant, he wanted to cook something nice for her.

Apparently Akira had mentioned to him that Kaneki was excellent in the kitchen, so Amon wanted to learn from him. Kaneki had only been all too happy to help.

It wasn't going as smoothly as either one of them hoped, though.

"How can you tell when you can't even taste the food?" Amon whispered heatedly to him, once Ichika had gone back to playing by herself, building some sort of skyscraper with her blocks.

"Well, first of all, you should notice the colour and texture." Kaneki took a ladle of the liquid and let it slowly fall back into the pot to illustrate what he meant.

"Next is the taste, actually. It'll always taste terrible but there are different levels to it, and food will usually taste worst to us when it's at its best. And lastly, you should stick to the recipe without any deviation. All the fine-tuning comes in once you've made a lot of the same thing." His voice took on a nostalgic tone as he continued, "The Quinx really helped with that. Saiko and Shirazu had the stomachs of ghouls, and Urie was very particular with what he ate. Mutsuki tried hard to save my feelings, but I caught on to what he liked and disliked too."

That faint pain was replaced by a proud smile. "Now Ichika is my taste-tester."

Amon's eyes tracked the girl. In some more months, he too would become a father. Kaneki was sure he would do well—he always seemed to have a soft spot for kids—but Amon wasn't so confident in himself.

Kaneki couldn't really blame him. He himself had been like a headless chicken during Ichika's birth, and even after being a father for so long, he was just as anxious this time about his second child.

After a minute of silence with both of them lost in their thoughts, Kaneki startled as Amon turned to him with renewed determination.

"What are we doing next?"