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When he first notices his immediate thought is that he’s losing her and he watches helplessly. He had help to raise Touka, and now he's losing her. History is repeating itself.
He watches as Touka and Ken steal glances when they think no one is looking. Little teasing smiles, lingering hands. Eyes that are too bright for the news every new day brings.
Renji sees it and he wishes he didn’t.
There’s a spring in her step. A lightness in her voice. A suspicious mark on her neck. A quick smile to her dear Uncle Yomo as she leaves the cafe and cheerful “See you tomorrow, old man!” She can barely hold back her happiness.
Had he been a man of less composure he would have long since grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken sense into her. He would have reminded her of everything he’s taught her, or of what happened to her mother and father. He would have begged her to come to her senses and be his little Touka once more - the one who kept her heart guarded and her senses sharp. The hardened survivor she once was, not the reckless lovesick woman she has become.
But Renji does not, cannot. Though he knows where this path leads he stays silent because he knows his outpouring of wisdom would do little to dissuade her. She had harbored this crush silently for years, he knows. Everyone knows. Touka wasn't nearly as discreet as she thought.
So what can an old man actually do? What can an old man do except watch with increasing trepidation, waiting for the inevitable tragedy to unfold? She is almost twenty-one. She is old enough to make her own mistakes. To fall in love, to fall out of love, for breakups and heartbreaks, and everything else that comes with it. But the world is not a kind place for ghouls, and the world is even more cruel to those who trip over their own feet and fall headfirst in love. In love especially with someone who seemed to have misfortune stuck to them as securely as Ken Kaneki.
Love has no place for people like them and he wishes he could explain that to her and actually have her listen for once. But his niece is stubborn, much like her mother before her.
She is hopelessly in love and he fears this will only leave tragedy in its wake.
...And then on the day when Ken tells him they are married, Renji gives them his blessings with a sinking, broken heart.
It has already happened, whether he likes it or not.
He almost feels like he is looking at a ghost when he sees her in the traditional wedding garb Tsukiyama conjures up from the depths of who knows where. When had she started looking so much like the sister he lost? When had she grown so tall, so grown up? Who had taken away his little girl and put in her place a grown woman?
Renji loses himself in the celebration. He doesn’t want to think about Ken's penchant to bring calamity with his every step, or what Touka’s future holds for her now. What the future holds for them, he corrects himself. They are a package deal now. Maybe they always had been he had just been too naive, too hopeful to see it.
He prays against the odds that disaster doesn’t find them.
“Be happy with me,” he grins at Nishio who is perhaps the only sober individual at the party. As grumpy as Nishio is at the ruckus going on he doesn’t seem notice how forced Renji’s smile is or how tense he is despite the high-quality blood wine in his system.
Happy indeed, Renji thinks as he takes another chug from the crimson-filled bottle.
Renji is terrified.