The small child ran through the frozen trees, giggling happily, not feeling any of the midwinter cold. He had been told on many occasions that he shouldn’t play with his ‘special’ fire so close to the town, but he was certain that he wasn’t caught. However, as he made it to the top of the last hill, he saw that he had been very wrong. The boy had never been afraid of fire before, but as the raging orange heat engulfed his home he could see why everyone else was. The sound of gunshots drew the young eyes down to his front yard where the snow had been trampled by numerous angry boots and was stained red.
His father was lying very still.
Rin abruptly woke up, back in his aunt Shura’s house in Italy. It had been a nightmare, a reminder of the bloody past that he left behind in Japan fifteen years ago.
Shaking his head, Rin got out of bed and began his morning. As he waited for the water to heat up, he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked to be in his twenties, a little skinny, with hair so black it shined blue. His teeth were a little sharper than normal, his ears a tad pointed, but it was his eyes that were the strangest; a bright flaming sapphire. Rin squinted at his reflection a bit and its eyes faded to an ordinary black. He hopped in the shower.
After showering, performing basic hygiene, and dressing in his beloved t-shirt-jeans-hoodie combo, the dark haired boy grabbed some food from the fridge, put it in his pack and left the house. This was undoubtedly Rin’s favourite part of the day, the part where he could be himself freely. Every morning Rin got up and ran the 10 kilometers to work, arriving in minutes, not sweaty at all, barely even breathing hard. You see, Rin was not like other young men his age, not at all.
You see, Rin was a demon.
Shura always hassled him about running so much, saying he would need to be home when Mephisto came looking for him. He would always respond about not knowing when you’ll need to run, stubbornly ignoring any mention of the upcoming selection.
Selection occurred every seventy years when the clan leader, Mephisto in this case, chooses a new mate. The mate would bear him a few new children, and raise them with him, and then raise them alone after he’d moved on. Here’s the especially irritating part: several generations back there was a lot of inbreeding between the succubae and incubi in the clan, and as a result of that the male demons could now bear children with other males, putting them down as viable options for the clan leader’s next potential mate. It was a great honour to even be in the running, let alone chosen.
And Rin just became of age to be selected.
It was a poorly kept secret that Mephisto had had his eye Rin for some time. The younger demon had always been exceptionally powerful, had come from a long line of leaders and wasn’t interested at all.
Shura always looked sad at the end of these arguments, caught between wanting Rin to feel safe here, to let go of the ghosts of his past the way his father, her mentor, would have wanted him to, and wanting Rin to just vanish off the face of the planet so that perhaps Mephisto would return to her.
Rin himself would try not to pity her too much as he left the house. This life was her choice.
Rin worked at a local sweets shop. The boy had always been a culinary genius and the old lady who ran the place didn’t ask nosy questions. He made all the general sweets and ran deliveries, while the lady dealt with the shop’s specialties (family recipes she said, and only made anything when Rin left the building entirely) and ran the cash. Rin spent his days there, and then went out at night with the clan.
Now that brings to mind the image of a group of monsters dancing under the moonlight, but that’s not it at all. There was a bar where the clan congregates as often as possible, every night if they can, called True Cross (Rin snorted at the irony). The place had good music and better liquor, the second of which Rin was enjoying that night. For the most part, it was all he showed up for. It was quite popular for humans as well, which made for good hunting. Something that a lot of demons enjoyed.
One such demon was Amaimon, a cousin of Rin’s, who at this point was watching a cute little human dancer. She seemed to be aware of her audience and apparently had no problems ramping it up a little. Rin had delivered chocolates to this girl on a few occasions, and thus knew that the normally shy young blond had probably been dragged out by friends and was now completely smashed. He was just recalling her name, Moriyama Shiemi, when Amaimon decided to respond to the provocative moves by casually grabbing the girl’s ass. The now laughing blond smacked his hand away, and vanished into the crowd. Rin’s inhuman hearing picked up a giggled ‘In your dreams!’ and he snorted. Drunk Shiemi was a tease.
Amaimon had wandered over to the bar so as to briefly escape some other cousins laughing at him (Rin had long given up trying to figure out the actual family relations with in the clan and eventually just called them all cousins). The smartest thing to do would be to not engage, but Rin couldn’t help but mock the older demon for his loss.
“Don’t run away, cousin. I think she likes you.”
Amaimon’s bored eyes flicked over to Rin and took on an irritated glint, the lollipop in his mouth clicking against his teeth. “Too bad for her then. I don’t like brats who taunt.” The glint turned mischievous and matching lips curved up just a little; Amaimon’s equivalent of cackling madly. “But I think Big Brother does. Will you dance for him like that?”
“There are other demons for Mephisto to choose from.”
Another reason that Rin no longer cares about family relations: absolutely none of Mephisto’s children called him father, instead choosing to call him anything from his name to Big Brother like Amaimon.
“It doesn’t matter that there are other options, baby fangs. Big Brother wants you. And when he picks you, I’m gonna really enjoy watching you completely submit.” Amaimon’s voice had dropped to just above a whisper, using the nickname that insulted Rin above all others. As the older demon walked away, trailed by four or five others, Rin berated himself for having to open his big mouth. His anger was enough to light his drink on fire. Blowing out the bright blue flame like a candle, Rin downed the alcohol, paid and left. He needed a quiet place to calm down.
Baby fangs. It implied that your fangs were as dull and useless as an infant’s. People were a lot more superstitious about monsters in Japan than in Italy, making it hard to come by a lone traveller after dark. Rin’s father, Shiro, had to raise him on what they laughingly called a ’vegetarian’ diet; the flesh and blood of animals instead of humans. After moving to Italy where human lives were plentiful and knew no caution, Rin had to work very hard to be able to stomach the same amount of human flesh as everyone else, not being used to the richness of it.
The name grated on him so because it made a part of him feel angry with his father for moving them to a place with so little food. The rest of him then became angry with himself for being angry with his father at all.
Then there was the other part of Amaimon’s lash; submitting to Mephisto. Rin couldn’t remember the last selection clearly, but he knew it involved stripping down and acting like some kind of harlot on command.
No thank you.
His feet carried him to the same place they always did when he was upset; an abandoned church, three blocks from his work place. It had fallen into disrepair a few decades ago, before Rin was born, the locals believing it was cursed by the Devil.
Rin snorted, knowing that the King of Gehenna would want nothing to do with the crumbling architecture of the Assian building.
The front doors were locked shut with a thick iron chain, but Rin never used that entrance anyway. Instead he walked around the side of the church and moved aside a couple pieces of debris, revealing an empty window pane that he snuck through.
Climbing up to the rafters as quietly as possible so as to not disturb the nesting pigeons, the blue eyed demon settled himself into a corner and relaxed. He reflected on what was bothering him and why it wasn’t worth his time or energy and let the negativity wash away from his mind like his father taught him when he was little.
The boy had been getting into fights since before he could remember.
He was pretty sure he could just fall asleep up there in the rafters, when he heard a scratching sound. He ruled out the birds, or any kind of scavenger, and bigger animals wouldn’t be found this close to the city. Immediately tensing, his eyes opened and triangulated the origin of the sound as directly below him. He carefully looked down.
A human man sat in one of the pews sketching what appeared to be a gargoyle, papers and art supplies spread all around him. Rin jerked back, sending a flock of startled pigeons into the air, drawing the human’s gaze. Rin faded safely into the shadows, unfortunately no longer able to see the human. He suddenly had the burning urge to see what the artist looked like, but was quickly distracted by a rough voice.
“Is someone there?”
Before he could think the scoff was already out of his mouth. “You’re asking me that?” The human let out a bark of a laugh and asked since when Italy had locked its churches. “This place is sacred, it’s protected. It’s also structurally unstable and fairly unsafe.” The sounds from below indicated the human was packing up his things as he responded.
“Yeah? Well I didn’t steal anything, and it doesn’t seem like this place is coming down anytime soon.” The human was walking toward a side exit, opposite the one Rin used to get in and out. “You Japanese?” As he opened the door, a burst of wind blew through the gap, scattering several of his pages. Rin stifled a laugh of his own at the human’s extensive swearing in their shared native tongue. He had climbed down and stepped into the light, a risky move to let the human see him but he figured they’d never see each other again anyway. He knelt to pick up one of the pages and found an almost perfect sketch of one of Amaimon’s pet hobgoblins.
What’s this?” As the human explained about figure studies and graphic novels, Rin took his first good look at the human. He was about Rin’s biological age, but a little taller and had a physique that the skinny demon boy was mildly jealous of. The hands holding his drawings were long fingered and covered in ink and graphite smudges. His face was all rough edges and something in the set of his mouth said he wouldn’t be afraid to throw down. But his soft brown eyes said he preferred to do things without fighting. His hair was the most interesting though; shaggy and dark brown with a thick streak of blond down the center. It was all being held up out of his eyes by a head band and it immediately reminded Rin of a rooster.
The human was holding up some of his graphic novels for Rin to see, a small smile on his face illustrating his pride in his work. The demon scanned the covers. “Which one has the monsters?”
“The next one,” replied the human. “My name is Suguro Ryuji. I’m here for research. I heard this place was supposedly infested with monsters, so they added sculptures to suit it, I had to find a way in.” Ryuji looked at a particularly gruesome gargoyle. “Although, they weren’t monsters so much as demons.”
Rin knew that playing totally clueless was his best bet; let this ‘Ryuji’ be the expert. “Demons? Like, from Hell?” Ryuji grinned at the demon boy’s feigned interest.
“Not exactly. According to the old stories, demons actually came from a place called Gehenna. Gehenna is a dimension that exists parallel to ours, which is called Assiah, and contact between the two was impossible. However, the demons started getting through somehow. There was supposedly this huge war, where Satan sent his armies into Assiah to conquer it and the Vatican fought back with its military trained exorcists.” Rin knew that this was no story. Mephisto had been a soldier of one of those armies. “The demons were forced back into Gehenna and were never heard from again. It was apparently over 2000 years ago.”
Rin handed back the drawing he held. “So your comic book, oh excuse me, your graphic novel; it’s not about monsters then?” The blue eyed demon didn’t know why, but he really wanted to tease the bigger male. Said bigger male glared.
"No. What are you doing here anyway? Hiding from something?” Rin knew that this had gone on long enough and started to walk away without a word. “Hey, hey, hey, I’m leaving, ok? I’m gone, just tell me your name. You do have a name, don’t you?” The demon boy stopped and looked back at the human before gesturing at the gargoyles.
“Did they have names?” Of course they did, but they wouldn’t have been recorded anywhere in Assiah, no human would know them. “Then why should we?” He walked out the door, casually mentioning that it was bad luck to break into a church. After shutting the door on the human still asking for his name, he jumped, landing neatly on the church roof, his tail coming out for extra balance. He watched as Ryuji came out and looked around the empty street, obviously wondering where the yet unnamed Rin could have disappeared to.
The demon boy didn’t come down until the human had vanished around the corner for more than ten seconds. From there he started walking home, knowing he had enough adventure for one night already, and that Mephisto was probably waiting for him back at the apartment with Shura. Rin could just imagine how Shura was behaving, try to keep Mepisto’s attention, almost desperately trying to win back his heart. She never really got over his leaving her and Amaimon. Rin used to wonder if Amaimon was actually Shura’s boy by blood, before he decided to not care anymore. None of his cousins ever looked alike.
Thinking about his relatives was starting to annoy and depress him, so he changed over to the human he met tonight.
Ryuji was at the very least attractive. Rin could admit that much, and if weren’t so damn dangerous, he would even admit that he liked the human. Sure Ryuji seemed to like the idea of demons and Gehenna and the Exorcist War, but that was because he thought it was just a story. If he found out that not only did that all actually happen but that demons and half demons still lived in Assiah today… Who knew what he would say or think. The blue eyed demon didn’t want to lose his home and loved ones again.
Rin was distracted from his brooding by the sounds of running, frightened breathing, and…
demons hunting.
Quickly slinking around a corner and into the shadows, Rin waited until, yep, it was Shiemi, came running by begging for someone to help her. Completely missing the alley Rin had come from, the young blonde’s face took on a certain terrified despair as she came to a dead end. Rin stepped out of the shadows just in time for her to turn around but before she could scream or faint or do something else stupid, Rin gently shoved her into the alley and told her to run. Thankfully she obeyed.
“Way to spoil our fun, baby fangs.” The younger demon turned to face Amaimon and his little troupe with a glare. They smirked back down at him from the low rooftops they perched on.
“You know the rule about hunting alone.” Amaimon rolled his eyes and several other demons snorted.
“Hunt with the clan or not at all,” they recited mockingly. The older demon jumped down and spit out the lollipop stick that he had been chewing on, advancing on Rin. “We all know Big Brother’s rule for hunting. I wonder what his rules for you will be. Mama says you’re a good cook so he’ll probably keep you in the kitchen, stripped completely naked except for some little piece of jewellery he has you wearing. An anklet maybe or perhaps a choker? A choker would be more fitting, looking like a dog collar and all-” Rin cut off his cousin with a yell, his anger reaching a breaking point.
“Shut up! We’re not talking about creepy fetishes Mephisto may or may not have, we’re talking about the law that you’ve broken! Do you even remember why we hunt as a clan?-”
“It wasn’t a hunt, baby fangs, it was a game. We were just chasing her.” Amaimon’s bored tone only served to anger Rin further. The air around him was starting to shimmer with heat a he threw up his hands.
“A game!? You risked our discovery, our lives, on a stupid, fucking, game!?” One of Amaimon’s lackeys still up on the roof made a comment about them being stronger than humans in every way possible, so would it really be so bad if the humans knew they existed? Rin promptly rounded on him. “If they find us, they will come for us! They will come in numbers and they will bring guns and silver and enough fucking holy water to both drown us and burn us all alive.” The lackey almost visibly wilted.
“Spoken like a true bitch who’s been there,”Amaimon snorted, quickly growing bored with this situation. “Very well, little cousin, we’ll retreat for now.” As he turned away, the green haired demon casually tossed one last insult over his shoulder. “You run along home now and get some beauty sleep. Selection is in a month, and I don’t think Big Brother will be too happy if his blushing bride-to-be turns up looking like death warmed over.”
Several mouldy newspapers on the alley floor burst into blue flames.
After allowing them to burn for a few minutes, Rin calmed himself down enough for the fire to go out and abruptly turned on his heel, leaving the alley. He needed to get home.
The blue eyed demon knew even before he opened the door that Mephisto was inside. He could sense the older demon’s presence thick in the air. Let it be known that Okumura Rin is not a coward, he thought as he opened to the door to find the clan leader sitting in the living room reading. He looked around for his aunt, knowing she would be near as possible to Mephisto, before the older demon told him she was asleep. Noticing that Rin hadn’t stepped any further into the room than strictly necessary, he posed a question.
“Are you afraid of me?” When Rin answered the negative Mephisto smiled and looked out the window at the sky. “You know it’s tradition every seven years for the clan leader to select a new mate.” For the second time tonight Rin’s tongue acted on its own.
“Don’t you mean ‘bitch’?” Mephisto scowled at Rin.
"You should show more respect for the rules. They are what allow us to survive in Assiah.” The older demon stood and began to walk leisurely around the room, making Rin feel like a mouse being circled by a hawk. “There are prophecies about boys like you, you know? The men in your family are like legends in this city. I warned your father not to leave, I told him what would happen if we did not stick together. But he did not listen. He put his own desires above those of the clan.”
“Don’t you dare insult my family.” Rin used every scrap of self-control he had to not light anything else on fire tonight. Mephisto turned and started moving directly toward Rin.
“You have no family. You have heritage.” He was standing almost directly in front of Rin now, his right shoulder lining up with Rin’s right, both demons looking straight ahead. Mephisto leaned over to whisper in Rin’s ear. “If you turn out to be one of these boys from the prophecy, I will choose you to be my mate.” As the older demon moved away, Rin whispered back.
“You see what you’ve done to Shura? You visit for a night, she cries for a month.” Mephisto’s right hand whipped up and clamped down on the back of Rin’s neck, pulling the smaller demon flush against his body and forcing the boy to meet his gaze. Rin could see the rage burning in Mephisto’s eyes.
“Wake up and smell the flowers burning Rin. You are not ordinary, you never will be, and if you ever struggle with that concept again I advise you to look in the mirror and see what stares back at you.” The older demon’s breath was hot over Rin’s lips before he was shoved away and Mephisto stormed out of the house.
Elsewhere, Shiemi was shivering in her night gown, wondering how the window had gotten open. She shut and locked it before turning and running right into the man she had teased at the club. He grinned down at her with unnaturally bright green eyes and frighteningly long and sharp canines.
The neighbours never even heard her scream.
BRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBRBR
The boss lady was hassling him to pick up the pace with the pastries and get out on deliveries so that she could make the specialties. Rin argued back that if he prepared them too quickly, the quality would drop. She replied ‘Bah!’ and left the kitchen. The demon boy smiled at the familiarity of the routine.
Until he picked up the morning paper on his way out and discovered that Miss Shiemi Moriyama, age 19, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her parents, currently on vacation. The report said wild dogs were suspected. Rin knew better.
Unfortunately, there was nothing Rin could do about it, and anyway Mephisto would find a way to discipline Amaimon, whether the earth demon admitted to killing her or not. So the blue eyed demon put it from his mind and went about his day, delivering white boxes wrapped in blue ribbon full of treats to families.
As he passed a book shop, a familiar cover caught his eye. It was one of the graphic novels Ryuji had showed him. He picked it up out of curiosity and took a flip through the beautifully detailed drawings (So Ryuji’s good with his hands thought Rin, before berating his mind for all the dirty images that phrase inspired). His brow furrowed when saw the author/artist’s name was not Suguro Ryuji, but Miwa Renzou. Who the heck? The blue eyed demon purchased the copy (if this guy is gonna portray my people, I at least gotta make sure he’s good at what he does he justified to himself) and carried on his way, decided to take a closer look at home.
Rin was doing his last delivery for the day and was taking a shortcut through a local plaza when a rough, Japanese accented voice called out.
“Hey, demon boy!”
Panic flooded the dark haired boy’s veins even though he knew rationally that anyone who heard the greeting (read: the entire fucking plaza) would automatically think it was a friendly nickname just from Ryuji’s tone and facial expression, but he had already lost too much to take chances. Rin bolted.
And Ryuji chased him.
The human navigated the twisted Italian streets surprisingly well for a tourist, and somehow Rin ended up in a dead end. His ears gauged that Ryuji would appear in the alley in about a minute and a half and the blue eyed demon prayed that was enough time to scale the wall. Hiking up his delivery bag a little higher on his shoulder, he took a running start, jumped, and started climbing, claws coming out to help him grip. He had just flipped over onto the roof and out of sight when Ryuji rounded the last corner. The demon boy climbed down the fire escape on the opposite wall, feeling a mixture of relief at his getaway and curiosity as to why Ryuji would chase him in the first place. He didn’t notice that a ribbon had fallen off the box until he had given it to the customer.
That sapphire ribbon had floated down from the roof and curled into Ryuji’s open palm, as if it had always meant to be there. Ryuji gently closed his fingers around the ribbon, not wanting to crinkle it, thinking to himself about how the string of fate was always said to be red, but he really liked blue better.
Now remember, how we said that the clan didn’t go out dancing under the moonlight? Well, that was only half true. You see, every full moon (just to be cliché, Rin knew the moon had nothing to do with it) Mephisto pulled a human from death row for them to hunt through the forest. It was essentially a very bloody bonding exercise, and everyone participated. The human was pointed in the direction of the river and told if it could make it there and across, it could go free.
Not one had so much as found the river.
The hunt was also one of the few times that Rin and Amaimon were civil with each other. Years ago they had made a pact to not be nasty to on another in front of Shura, each for different reasons, but mostly because she was one scary lady when she was angry.
During the drive out to the hunting grounds, Rin took the opportunity to read the comic he had picked up. It would normally be risky with Amaimon sitting in the seat in front of him, but as long as the truce was in place the older demon generally didn’t bother with Rin. Besides they were all distracted with exchanging stories of previous hunts.
Upon arrival at the grounds, the group split off, Amaimon and his boys going to greet friends, Rin following Shura. It wasn’t long before Mephisto showed up this month’s prey, in a ridiculous bubble gum pink limo. Rin wasn’t sure he’d be able to withstand this guy’s tastes for seven years, especially following the older demon’s every whim; Mephisto would undoubtedly want to play dress up.
Forcing his mind back to the present, he became aware that everyone had bowed their heads to the leader, and Shura was staring at him in a silent command to follow suit. Rin did so, going through the mandatory motions of sweeping his hand along the back of his neck as if to reveal it from under something. A relic from the age where everyone had long hair.
“Ladies and gentlemen, how nice it is to see everyone again,” Mephisto began. He gave a similar speech every time, about how this place was theirs no matter what country they were run out of and they were strongest when they stood together. At last, he brought out the prey, told it where to go, and let it run after scratching a deep gash into the prey’s arm. As per ritual they let it go for a full minute before giving chase.
Mephisto walked over to Rin who hadn’t moved from where he stood. Mephisto didn’t say anything, but his eyes held the obvious question. The younger demon mumbled that he wasn’t hungry. Mephisto smirked and brought his hand up under Rin’s nose. His fingers were soaked in human blood and the boy had to call on every ounce of self-control to not lick those fingers clean. Mephisto, still holding his hand under Rin’s nose, circled around to breathe in his ear from behind. “You just don’t realize you’re hungry.” As his lips brushed the younger one’s pointed ear, Rin took off running into the forest behind the others. He wasn’t sure if he was running toward the human prey, or away from Mephisto.
Rin completely let go of any humanity, letting his demon instinct take over. From there it was a rush of pure sensation; the rush of wind in his ears, the damp earth between his fingers as he ran on all fours, the sharp scent of fear, and finally…
The warm tang of blood in his mouth and soft flesh being rent apart in his teeth.
Later, after he came back to himself, he realized he could taste chocolate from the shop alongside the blood. He couldn’t decide which taste he hated more.
The next morning Ryuji was irritated. He had absolutely no clue what story he wanted to tell, let alone how to portray the demons of Gehenna or the exorcists of Assiah. The worst part was, no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, his eyes kept straying to the sapphire ribbon he had carefully pinned to his work board, next to the sketch of the Demon Boy that he had made the night they met after he got home.
After the tenth time he caught himself staring at it, he threw down his pencil and decided to go for a walk (it was just to clear his head, he was definitely not going looking for the guy, no way). After a moment’s deliberation, he took the ribbon and put it in his sketchbook case to take with him.
As he walked down passed the concierge, he didn’t bother to ask if there was any mail. The guy was pretty good about getting stuff to him without being asked (Shima’s gag box full of porn mags was promptly returned last week, sent back with little trinkets for him and Konekomaru). However, something did catch his eye; a blue ribbon, exactly like the one he was carrying with him. At this point, the concierge, who up to now had been reading the morning paper, noticed Ryuji standing there and asked if he could be of service.
“Yeah, actually,” said Ryuji, picking up the ribbon. “Could you tell me where you got this?”
Rin had also been having a rough morning. His boss had been especially naggy about making the pastries faster today, and Rin was about to lose his temper with the old woman. When he once again felt a presence behind his back, he didn’t even turn around when responding. “They’re not gonna be done any faster with you hovering-”
“Hey, demon boy.”
Rin whipped around to see that the smug voice had indeed come from the equally pleased-with-himself smirk on Ryuji’s face. Since he could not speak the first thing in his mind (You just took brown leather jackets to a whole new level of sexy), he replied with the demand to never call him ‘demon boy’ again.
“Then give me something else to call you.” Ryuji leaned back against the wall, body language very clearly stating that the brunette-blond would not be going anywhere. The black haired male scowled, seemed to wrestle with himself before finally:
“Rin. My name is Rin. Now what are you still doing in Italy? Don’t you have a home to go back to?”
“Nope, just a train ticket. Gets me out of here in a couple weeks, but I was hoping to spend some of the meantime with you… ?” Ryuji had moved from the wall to leaning against the table Rin was working at. Rin shrugged at him.
“Yeah, I don’t think my boyfriend would feel too nicely about me hanging around another guy.” It was a carefully planned triple-whammy; if Rin’s sexuality or the blatant misinterpretation of Ryuji’s interest didn’t put Ryuji off, the fact that he was in a relationship would. Ryuji only smirked.
“Would you be in an abandoned church at two in the morning if you had a boyfriend?” Dammit. He was fine with the first two points and didn’t believe the third.
“We, uh, had a fight. Look I’m working. I don’t think you should be back here. ” The demon turned back to his work, hoping the human would take the hint and leave him alone. No dice.
“Yeah, right. If you had a fight with anybody, I can tell you’d stick it out until you were both black and blue. And if you want me to leave, then tell me to.” Rin blinked up at the human, wondering if it was really that easy.
“Leave,” he said tentatively. Ryuji snorted.
“Now say it like you mean it.” Rin finished the pastries (without looking at them. Ryuji was impressed) and took them out to the front. Ryuji groaned. “Why do you always run from me? Are my drawings so terrible? Huh?” Rin had stopped listening as he looked out the front window.
What was Amaimon doing here?!
“You need to leave now,” he told Ryuji urgently as he ducked back into the kitchen. Ryuji followed him stubbornly, mumbling that he was starting to sound like he meant it. Rin was starting to get a little desperate.
"What do you want with me?” They may be in the kitchen, but Amaimon would only be here for Rin and would come straight to the back.
“I want to find out why you were holed up in an abandoned church that night, what secret you’re hiding. Don’t say you’re not hiding anything, I can see it in your eyes.” Ryuji replied bluntly. Having drawn those eyes, Ryuji knew there was some sort of secret back there. Rin threw up his hands.
“And I should just tell you? How would you feel if I hounded you to find out why you don’t even put your name on your comic books? ” For a moment Ryuji looked caught off guard and Rin thought he’d won, until:
“You’ve read my books?” A small smile had crept across the brunette-blonde’s lips. “I guess the library was out-”
Amaimon had entered the building. “You really need to go.” But Ryuji wouldn’t give up, pleading and threatening to show up all day every day until Rin finally caved and gave him what he wanted; a place and a time. The human grinned.
“Seven o’clock then. Ah, one more thing,” Ryuji pulled out a rolled piece of paper tied with a blue ribbon that looked a lot like one of the shop’s ribbons. “For you, demon boy.”
Rin accepted the paper, and Ryuji turned to leave, just as Amaimon opened the door to the kitchen. As the two men stared each other down, Rin briefly wondered how so many non-employees were getting into a room clearly marked ‘Employees Only’. Amaimon’s eyes flicked between Rin and Ryuji before he spoke around the ever present lollipop in his mouth. “Sorry to interrupt. Health inspector.” You could tell from the look on Ryuji’s face that he didn’t believe a word of that, but he left without argument. Once the door shut again, the older demon’s eyes zeroed in on the paper in Rin’s hand. “What is that?”
“Trash.” Rin responded as he promptly chucked it. Only a few minutes of pretending to work with his cousin standing randomly in the room later, Rin took the trash out to the dumpster behind the establishment. He put the basket down and opened the dumpster, mentally calculating how long the paper could sit in it with the rest of the trash before it was wrecked completely. He turned back around to find said paper missing from the basket. Turning around again found the paper in Amaimon’s hand as he sat on the dumpster lid. “Give it back.” The older demon pulled it away from Rin’s reaching hand.
“What, your trash? Why would you want a piece of trash- oh my, what have we here?” Having pulled off the ribbon and unrolled the paper, Amaimon’s eyes took on that familiar malicious glint as his eyes took in the contents.
“It’s not what you think. I haven’t told him anything,” Rin knew such words would be completely useless but the image of his cousin tearing Ryuji apart terrified him.
“You don’t think I’ll honestly believe that, do you, baby fangs?” The earth demon flipped the page around to reveal a pencil drawing of Rin with a large gargoyle standing protectively over him. It was the spitting image of the gargoyle at the church that represented Satan.
“He’s been doing some digging in the old churches but he thinks that it’s all superstition and legends, material for his comic books. I showed interest.” Amaimon raised an eyebrow. “Not that kind of interest.” The older demon smirked.
“What, decided not to model your tail for him?” The mirth vanished from his face. “I don’t care what you do with your pet, just keep your mouth shut.”
The entire wastebasket caught fire. “Seriously?! You think you need to tell me what humans will do to us? You think I’m unaware of the consequences? My twin was shot dead because of our powers and he barely had any of his own!” Amaimon sighed and hopped down from the dumpster. He honestly hadn’t meant to drag that up.
“Look little cousin, your meat boy is certainly pretty, and he’d probably be fun, but he’s only human. You’ll never get to be yourself with him.” He wrapped his arms around Rin’s shoulders and leant his head down affectionately, but Rin turned his face away. There was no actual affection in the hug, just the pity Rin despised. “Besides, with selection so soon? Big Brother wouldn’t be too happy if he heard about this.”
“Just like he wouldn’t be happy if he heard how you killed that girl?” The hug suddenly turned constricting, cutting off Rin’s air.
“I was trying to be nice little cousin, but listen up. I’m next in line after Big Brother and that means one day I will lead this clan. So you need to keep that in mind and watch your tongue because I will do what I want when I want, regardless of how anyone else feels about it.” Amaimon released the younger demon. “Now run along, darling Rin, the world needs its treats.” The blue eyed demon snatched the drawing away from Amaimon and went back to work, grateful the gift wasn’t so much as crumpled.
Amaimon had won the argument but Mephisto still found out about Shiemi’s death. It wouldn’t be for a few days but when he did, he came down fast and hard on the earth demon.
Amaimon and some of his friends worked at a local warehouse owned by Mephisto. It was from the rec room that Mephisto called him out to talk in private.
“You look upset about something Big Brother. Current bitch not working out? I understand Mama must have left some pretty big shoes to fill.” Mephisto caught him off.
“Were you hunting alone? With your boys maybe?” The earth demon blinked.
“Of course not. Why do you ask?” The leader held up the newspaper article featuring Shiemi, pointing out that the girl had publically spurned Amaimon the evening before her body was found. The green haired demon denied again, but when pressed he admitted to tracking her as a game with some of the boys. “Did Rin tell you this? ‘Cause Rin’s a filthy little liar-”
“Rin has nothing to do with this!” Amaimon recoiled from his leader’s anger and once again denied murdering the girl. Regaining control of himself, Mephisto pulled the younger demon closer by the back of his neck and kissed his forehead. “You are one of mine, but if you are lying then I cannot protect you. Please head my warning: the day you hunt outside the clan, you are dead to it.” With that Mephisto left.
But, as mentioned earlier, that wouldn’t happen for a few days. Right now, Rin was busy tearing apart his closet trying to find something to wear on his date with Ryuji. He wished Shura’s fashion sense had rubbed off on him somewhere along the line, but no. On the other hand, if Shura had been home, she would have pitched a fit that Rin was going out with a man other than Mephisto, particularly a human.
After finally settling on something (a pair of jeans without any rips and a jacket instead of a hoody), he grabbed his keys, wallet, and other essentials and disappearing into the dusk. He ran like always, arriving at the restaurant fifteen minutes early. He stayed out of sight as Ryuji came up the sidewalk five minutes later, running his fingers through his hair. Rin stifled a giggle as the blond streak stuck straight up, reminding him even more of a rooster. It was even funnier when Ryuji noticed his new hairdo in a shop window and furiously began to flatten it back down. Rin waited a few more minutes, just so Ryuji didn’t worry that his momentary embarrassment was seen, before coming around the corner. Ryuji smiled and greeted him and they went inside the restaurant together.
The evening was magical. Rin had never felt so free in his life, even with all the secrets and constant checking over his shoulder for the clan. Ryuji was funny and sweet and they talked about pretty much everything.
“So how does a Japanese boy end up in Italy anyway?” Ryuji asked as they walked from the restaurant to a place he wanted to show Rin. The dark haired boy laughed.
“I could ask you the same thing. I was actually born very near to Italy, in a place that’s very hard to live in or leave. But somehow my father managed to get us here. After a year or so, my father moved us again, to Japan, for political reasons. I moved back alone.” It was only half a lie. The part of Gehenna that Rin was born in was a desolate wasteland and the largest Gate was, ironically, right in front of the Vatican and almost impossible to open from either side. The political reasons for moving was the clan being at war with another clan, from up north. Ryuji looked confused.
“Where was your mother in all this?” Rin’s eyes took on a melancholy look.
“She died in childbirth. She wasn’t very healthy and having the both of us just a little too much for her to take.” Ryuji looked surprised then.
“You have a sibling?”
“Had a sibling. When I was about five years old, there was… an incident with some of the locals. Both my father and brother died. My aunt Shura took custody of me and moved me here before they could find me too. I lived here with her ever since.”
“I never had any siblings. Were you close with your brother?” Rin quietly snorted.
“Yukio was my younger twin. We used to joke around that whoever divided the brains and brawn for each of us got mixed up because he was all brain and I was all brawn.” In an effort to pull the sadness from Ryuji’s eyes, Rin changed the subject. “Who is Miwa Renzou? Sounds really weird for a penname.”
It was Ryuji’s turn to snort. “Miwa Konekomaru and Shima Renzou are my two best friends from home. We did everything together. I still write home to them and send them little things from each country I visit. Aside from my publisher, they’re the only people I keep in contact with. I figured, if I wasn’t gonna use my real name, may as well give a little shout out to my biggest supporters.”
“Why don’t you use your real name?” Ryuji grinned.
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” At first Ryuji felt a little bad for choosing to keep his secret even after Rin had all but spilled his guts, but he could still tell that Rin hiding something pretty major himself. Besides, Rin didn’t seem to mind, as the shorter male had laughed and asked how the research was going. “Hollywod has made a serious mess of the Bible. In the legends of Gehenna, demons weren’t sent from Hell to tempt mankind into damnation, they were just seeking a better life in Assiah. Allegedly, the majority of Gehenna is incapable of supporting demon life, so they found a way to leave. The stories called it the Gehenna’s Gate. There’s supposed to be a few all over the world.” Seeing that Rin was honestly interested, Ryuji kept going. “Also, the more powerful demons had the ability to hold human form and blend in, but if they were injured, bleeding specifically, they’d show you a glimpse of who they really are. It’s all in the eyes.” They rounded the last corner to find the place Ryuji had wanted Rin to see was closed, much to his dismay. It wasn’t so much the café itself that was special as the view from the roof. It covered the whole city. Rin smiled.
“Not the whole city. How about I take you somewhere?” Ryuji followed his dark haired companion down some narrow streets and up along a wall. The brunette-blond was in the middle of admiring how Rin could balance on the wall so easily when he realized why the wall was even there.
“Hey, wait a sec, this is private property!” Rin just smiled over his shoulder at the almost crawling boy.
“Never stopped you before.” Rin led him past security cameras and up along some outdoor stairs. “This place belongs to one of the richest men in the city. He’s an art collector.” Finally they reached a large balcony decorated with eight ornate demon statues, complete with horns, fangs, tails, and claws. Walking over to the railing, Rin gestured over at the skyline. “Now this is the best view of the city.”
Ryuji was in awe, of the statues, the view, of Rin himself. “How did you know this was here?”
Because it’s Mephisto’s place. “I thought you might like it.” Rin smiled. “This place was supposed to be a Gehennan fortress from one of the first demon invasions. Each statue represents a different breed of demon.” The nearest demon was entwined in vines and leaves. “Earth,” The next coated in beetles, spiders and locusts. “Insects,” Another was wrapped around a giant hourglass. “Time,” The next two had bodies all around them, one covered in death and decomposition, the other an orgy. “Rot, Lust,” One had a fish tail in place of legs and another had large wings with each feather as sharp as a blade. “Water, Air,” The last was standing on a pyre, the shape of flames engraved into its body, holding up a flame of its own in his left hand, as if lighting the way forward. “and Fire.”
“Holy crap, this is… ” Ryuji whistled. “I don’t even have words to describe how amazing this is.” Rin turned to face over the ledge.
“Don’t you want to draw them or something?” Ryuji walked over and leaned against the railing next to the dark haired boy.
“Why do you always seem like you’re being watched or hiding something? Are you not allowed to take a walk or break and enter with a handsome, starving artist?” The last bit was said as a joke, but Rin could tell that he couldn’t just dodge the question anymore. He sighed.
“My family has expectations for me. Where I go, who I go with, that sort of thing. My life has been pre-planned for a very long time, since a very long time ago.” The demon’s eyes went a little distant. Ryuji frowned a little.
“Your future belongs to you and you alone, you know? Let me tell you something.” Ryuji shifted so that he was almost sitting on the railing, his whole body turned to face Rin. “My old man is the head priest at a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, and he told me that no son of his was going to turn out to be a, um, ‘filthy little faggot’, so I had better straighten up and start preparing to take over as head priest and finding a wife to continue the family line. I had always been a complete Kisney 6, so a marriage to even the most loving wife on the planet would have been miserable for the both of us.” Ryuji had stopped looking at Rin, instead choosing to stare at the horizon. “When I was seventeen, I put my foot down, said I wasn’t interested in either women or taking over the temple, that I was leaving and there was nothing he could do about it. He said that he would kill me if I tried. I tried anyway and was gone before he got the chance. I owe everything to Renzou and Konekomaru for helping me escape. So now I draw everything from wherever I travel and send it in to my publisher and don’t put my name on my books. If my father finds me, he will follow through on his threat.” Rin leaned into his companion.
“I never knew a father could feel that way for his child. You’ve been on the run since you were seventeen?” The demon could feel the brunette-blonde’s shoulders stiffen and knew instinctively that Ryuji was embarrassed.
“It’s only been three years. Look, the point I’m trying to make here is that I know what it’s like to not want what they want for you.” Ryuji had turned to face Rin directly. They were so close that the demon could count the human’s eyelashes. Just a little bit more and Rin would know the feel of mortal lips against his own. The demon shifted forward and it was electricity and bliss.
As two mouths moved with one another, Rin forgot all about Amaimon and Shura and the clan. He forgot that selection was at the end of the week and he was the number one candidate. Mephisto could walk out onto the balcony that very second and Rin probably wouldn’t even notice. Everything that wasn’t Ryuji completely vanished from his mind.
The pair spent the night and most of the next few weeks together. Ryuji promised to keep things low key so that Rin’s family didn’t find out, but Rin discovered that the more time he spent with Ryuji, the more he didn’t care what the clan or Mephisto would say or think. This, Rin thought, must be what freedom feels like.
But freedom always has a cost and Amaimon had come to collect.