scenicmode:

Imagine Kaneki hanging out at an animal shelter and getting attached to a certain cat. Hide sees this and ends up adopting the cat. He plans to surprise the other with it but doesn’t get the chance. Kaneki ends up in the hospital, grows distant, and then disappears. Hide keeps the cat and names it Neki (mainly out of loneliness). He talks to the cat as though he were Kaneki, often looking at the gray cat with fake annoyance and saying things like ‘Rabbits can die of loneliness, you know’ and ‘I already know, so you better come home soon!’ Eventually, the two meet each other again at the Anteiku Raid and, before collapsing, Hide mentions that he bought Kaneki that cat he always liked. He’s a little sad he’ll never get to personally give it to him and see his friend’s reaction to receiving the ball of fluff. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’, he thinks as his consciousness fades. 

Then, one day, perhaps on Christmas or his birthday, Akira surprises Haise with a cat. She tells him that a coworker entrusted it to her before his death, but that she thinks Haise could use a friend. That was only part of the truth. In his last testament, Hide asked Akira (because he knew she was already fond of cats) to take care of the cat until, hopefully, it’s intended owner was found. 

Haise takes a quick liking to the cat as do the rest of his squad. 

In the end, Neki finds his home.