So I re-read the OSB about ghoul heat and have ended up with a few ideas.
Particularly the part where Hide ends up smelling strongly enough of Kaneki in heat that Hide attracts female ghouls. I'm thinking he gets hit on by a ghoul woman, and has that mix of scared because he knows how potentially dangerous this is, and thrilled because it's Hide, who wants a a ghoul girlfriend, getting open flirting from a ghoul...
...and then both of them come to screeching halt as Hide realizes she's Sankou (and vice versa.)
Probably somewhere that's not well-lit, so that it takes Hide a minute to recognize who he's seeing, and on Sankou's part, she has to tamp down the immediate lust and sit on it, and get a read on who she's flirting with, outside of him smelling very sexy.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...!
First of all, I love this.
But also... the layers here.
Sankou knows what Kaneki smells like. She would instantly recognize that it's Kaneki scent—Kaneki's scent in heat—and have to sit on the fact that she's attracted to him. Is this purely hormones? Is it something deeper? Is it something that could carry-over after their heat cycles? Is it something she minds? Is it something he would mind?
I think, generally speaking, a ghoul being out and about while in heat kinda implies they're up for hookups (or, on their way to a hookup), so that would probably also throw her for a loop because again: she knows Kaneki, and he's not really that kind of guy.
But also, like. Yeah, why not, if he's up for it? They're adults, they're on good terms—neither of them really have many ghouls they trust to not stab them in the back. He would be a good option for that, logically speaking. And I see her as someone more logistical than emotional.
And then she manages to actually start taking in what she sees instead of just senses and... it's Hide?! Why does Hide smell like a ghoul? Like Kaneki? Like, literally how? Because that's not just a little rubbed off scent, like how he usually smells a bit like Kaneki, no, now he is dowsed in it where you can't even smell his original human scent. I think that alone would give her sirens ringing 'Hey, Hide probably knows....!' There's... not really a way to get rubbed on by a ghoul in heat that isn't immediately clear that they're a ghoul—since being in heat literally means that their kakugan and kagune are out. So either a) Hide is chill with it and may or may not have already known. Or b) Kaneki is dead now and Hide is trying to calmly return home after getting him exterminated. Which just gives more questions: Did Kaneki make a move on him and reveal himself? How exactly did this situation come to be?
And like.. Sure, Hide seems scared. But not scared scared. Not 'run and scream and beg for my life' scared. Especially as the moments go on, and Hide seems to... relax a little around her??
Also?? If you think about it... appearance-wise Sankou is kinda like a female version of oneshot!Kaneki. Black hair, sanpaku eyes, default neutral expressions. Sankou's a pretty girl, in a slight goth / occult way, but... maybe there's another reason for his attraction to her.
I think ultimately, she would go for it. Sankou as well has always struck me as a very perceptive character. That she goes through life quietly in the background, taking everything in and figuring out all kinds of things that she only ever keeps to herself.
I think she and Hide, in that pause, would be able to sense that... they're kind of the same, and thinking the same thing, both lusting after each other, and that neither one has any ill will against each other. Sankou never imagined she'd ever be doing it with a human, and she thinks she'll probably majorly regret this once her heat ends, hell maybe even just in the morning when the lust dies down a little.
She finds that she doesn't, though.
It was just a one night stand, so I think they would both move on from it, and both be capable of not making it weird. Down the line, when they see each other, Sankou might just give him a little friendly smile. Another person she's on good terms with and can trust. An ally.
On a funnier note, I think Kaneki's brain would shutdown from the utter surprise and confusion if Hide told him that he slept with Sankou in heat.
