Rin grasped the doorknob then looked back at his brother for reassurance. Yukio nodded for him to go on, so he gingerly turned the knob and opened the door. Their eyes grew wide when they gazed into the room and let out a long breath they didn't realize they'd been holding.

It felt like they had stepped back in time. Back to when their mother was just a normal high school student trying to find her place in the world, just like her sons.

The room didn't look anything like the rest of the house. There were no religious relics or creepy kinckknacks in sight- it simply looked like the room of a normal teenage girl. Posters of music idols and television characters lined the cream colored walls and the bookshelf was filled with books, dolls, and a few mementos. A dresser with a large vanity mirror stood on the far side of the room with a few keepsakes and photos sitting on the top. A queen sized bed and canopy stood in the middle of the room and was fashioned with a cream and turquoise bedspread with a stuffed black and white cat resting on the pillow. The curtains were a lighter shade of blue and were lined with lace, which lavishness made it stand out against the rest of the room. They guessed her mother must have picked those out for Yuri when she was younger and just never bothered to change them.

The younger Okumura moved slowly into the bedroom, eyes and head moving all around the room, trying to take as much in as he could.

Rin remained frozen in place, unable to find the strength to move further into the room. "So, do you think this is really the room our mother grew up in?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.

"It has to be…" Yukio murmured softy. "As far as I know, our mother was an only child. Besides, I doubt anyone from Vatican headquarters would have allowed us here if there were any other living heirs."

A photo perched on the shelf caught his eye and he let out a short gasp, "Rin, come look at this!"

His brother exhaled deeply then slowly moved towards the other end of the room. His legs felt like jelly beneath him and his heart was beating so hard, he could feel it in his throat.

Their mother had been a complete mystery to the brothers their entire lives so when Rin learned that they might finally have an opportunity to learn something about her, he couldn't have been happier. But his heart was so full of bitterness and disgust after what he'd seen in his grandfather's room,all he wanted to do was run back to their dorm and never turn back.

The brothers' relationship with Shiro, who wasn't even their blood, was as warm and welcoming as you'd expect any normal family to be. For their grandfather to do all he had done to cut ties and destroy what little family he had left just seemed wrong on so many levels.

"What is it?" Rin asked when he reached his brother then looked over to see what he was holding and found three beaming faces looking back at him. His grandfather had one arm wrapped around his wife and his other was holding his infant daughter, who was grinning widely and waving to the camera. Yuri couldn't have been much older than 4 or 5 years old when this picture was taken. They looked so happy. Rin thought. What could have happened to change things so much?

Rin let out a soft laugh, "Heh, Mom was even cuter than we were as kids. I wonder if she was half the trouble," he teased, elbowing his younger brother. Yukio rolled his eyes, but smiled fondly at the picture. "We should definitely take this one back with us." Rin added as he lifted the picture from Yukio's hand and gently placed it into his backpack.

Yukio continued scanning the bookshelf while Rin moved on to the dresser and began rummaging through the drawers. As luck would have it, the first drawer he pulled out was Yuri's underwear drawer. He shrieked in surprise and frantically slammed it shut, nearly knocking down all the picture frames and trinkets in the process.

"What happened?!" Yukio shouted, moving towards his brother with concern.

"N-nothing! I…uh…saw a spider," Rin stammered, a deep blush forming on his face.

Yukio raised an eyebrow, "A spider?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya?! It just caught me by surprise, that's all."

The younger Okumura still looked skeptical, but didn't bother questioning him further and turned his attention back to the bookshelf. It contained several volumes of manga, a few fantasy and fairy tale novels, and half a dozen of books on demonology. He noticed there was one book on the bottom shelf that was particularly thick and didn't have a title. He slowly pulled it out of its niche and discovered it was a photo album.

Meanwhile, his big brother had finally worked up the courage to open another drawer. He cautiously pulled it open, inch-by-inch, then violently slammed it shut when his brother called him over.

"What is it this time?" He asked defensively, still shifty from his earlier discovery.

"Just get over here," Yukio ordered. His older brother groaned in reply, figuring he was going to show him another book on demonology or exorcism. But when he saw the size of the book and the word Memories inscribed on the cover, he knew it could only mean one thing.

"Another one?" Rin murmured.

"What?"

Rin paused for a second, considering telling his younger brother about his previous discovery then decided against it. "Never mind. Just…open it already."

Yukio glared at him for a moment then gently opened the album. The brothers' eyes widen and mouths hung agape as they gazed at the first set of photographs.

The first was of Yuri at what seemed to be her first day of elementary school, judging by the classroom and other schoolchildren milling around in the background. She was so small, her backpack was almost as big as she was. She looked so much like Rin did on his first day- all smiles and eyes full of enthusiasm. Shiro kept a similar picture of his boys on the mantle of their family home. However the younger Okurmura didn't looked quite as enthusiastic as his big brother. He could only manage a faint smile through eyefuls of nervous tears. It had taken Rin and Shiro nearly all morning to convince Yukio that the kids at the school were going to be their friends and the hulking teacher wasn't as scary as she looked.

The next couple pages contained photographs of Yuri dancing onstage at a ballet recital. She had grown a bit taller since the last few photos they'd seen her in, but she was still smaller than most of the other girls. She wore a light pink leotard and had her done up in a tight dancer's bun. Despite her age, the pictures showed a girl dedicated to form and full of graceful passion for the art. It was ethereal; she looked like an angel.

Further on was a single photograph of Yuri showing off a hand drawn picture herself and her parents holding hands. It wasn't anything remarkable; to any other person it looked like just another child's doodle, but she looked so proud of her artwork, you'd think she just earned first place in the art fair. Yukio may have inherited her hair and eye color, but she looked just like Rin when she smiled.

They turned the next page and found a photo of her, roughly a year later, dressed up as a devil for Halloween. She held a devil's pitchfork in one hand and reached out to the camera with the other, her fingertips slightly bent like claws, smiling mischievously at the camera. The brothers couldn't help but let out a short chuckle at that. They couldn't decide which was stranger- the irony of that she chose to dress up as the devil for Halloween or that her father actually allowed her to wear it.

The next collection of photographs were of Yuri at Christmastime that same year. The first was of her making cut-out Christmas cookies with her mother. The young girl was covered in flour from head to toe, as was much of the kitchen. Her mother had an exhausted smile on her face, like she'd given up trying to contain the mess. This led into Yuri standing in front of the Christmas tree in a beautiful dark red dress, probably on her way to Christmas Eve mass.The next couple pages included photos of her and her folks opening presents on Christmas morning.She had gotten a large assortment of toys, dolls, and books, but her favorite seemed to be a junior chemistry set. She held it tight against her body, like a treasured stuffed animal, and grinned gleefully.

"Heh, looks like Mom was a nerd just like you, Yukio," Rin teased.

Then with the flip of a page, that year of Yuri's life came to a close and another began. Snapshots from Yuri's youth had come together to form a storybook of her life. Everything from sports to sleepovers, conferences to confirmation- they watched their mother grow. As they flipped pictures of a cheerful, hyperactive child were replaced ones of a bright and lively young woman and family members were replaced by friends and classmates, yet one thing that remained the same was Yuri's good natured smile and warm eyes and the happy faces of everyone around her.

Although the album held less than 100 photos, they spent nearly an hour going through it. They lingered on every picture, trying to guess they story behind it and imagining what her childhood must have been. It was surreal, like they were looking at a completely different man than the grandfather they knew.The cherry on top though, was finally seeing their mother as a person and not just a far-off idea. Shiro had good reason to keep the truth about her life, and death, a secret, but to see her now, to see her as she had been…it was a breath of fresh air.

The twins did their best to piece together their mom's life with every photo they uncovered, but they still had so many questions that they would probably never know the answer to.

Was her childhood really as happy as it had seemed?

Was she more like Rin or Yukio when she was younger?

When did she start training to become an exorcist?

What was her relationship with her parents like as she got older?

And what exactly made her fall in love with Satan?

"Hey Rin?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think…Mom would hate us? For what happened at the gate?"

Rin frowned and stared down at the last picture. It was of her and two of her friends during a school festival. She had an arm wrapped around each of their necks, pulling them in for a warm embrace, smiling playfully and winking at the camera. It was hard to believe a girl who was so kindhearted and seemingly carefree could be an exorcist. They couldn't imagine her harming anyone- human or demon.

Rin pondered hard about the question his brother had just raised. Satan had made it very clear that the whole reason he had crossed Gehenna's gate was to create a world where demons and humans lived together. He had said that had been Yuri's dream. A dream she had paid the ultimate price for, but their father's methods had been unacceptable. Rin couldn't wrap his head around Yuri wanting to bring humans and demons together by drowning one with the other.

If you try to ignore either half, you'll lose yourself completely.

His own words to Yukio came rushing back, and all of a sudden he was chuckling to himself.

Yukio raised an eyebrow. "Did I say something funny?"

Shaking his head, Rin let his tail rise and allowed a small plume of blue flame to gently ignite above his forehead. An answering shimmer glowed over Yukio and the two brother's stood there basking in each other's presence. The warmth and acceptance was comforting.

"How could she hate us? We're living her dream right now, aren't we?"

Yukio blinked. "What do you..?"

"Come on, four eyes, think about it. Think about Kuro and Ukoboch, and what about Shiemi and Nii? Even Mephisto lives in Assiah and doesn't really cause too much trouble…"

Well…for the most part, that is.

"Since we've found out about Mom, we've been working towards living peacefully with demons all along. Do you really think she would sacrifice herself for us to grow up with Shiro just to hate us for all eternity in the great beyond? That doesn't make any sense."

The brothers combed the room for other mementos and clues about their mother's life, but couldn't find anything that could compare to the photo album. They decided to take the photo album and all the other photographs with them and come back tomorrow to collect some of her keepsakes and books. They didn't know how long the remnants of the protection spell on the room would last so they wanted to take what they could before it was auctioned off or thrown out.

They took one last room around the room, trying to reimagine what it was like growing up in this house engrave the image of their mother's room in their minds forever.Before they left, Yukio placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, stopping him in the doorway.

"You were right," Yukio muttered.

Rin cocked his head and gave his brother puzzled stare, "Huh?"

"You were right," Yukio repeated, a soft smile gracing by face, "This was a good idea."

Rin stared at his brother for another moment then smiled wider than Yukio had seen in a long time and gave his little brother a spirited pat on the back.

"See, what'd I tell you. You're big brother knows what he's doing. You really should listen to me more often."

"You're one to talk," Yukio scoffed. "You never follow orders or listen instructions on missions. You don't even pay attention during class or when I'm giving a homework assignment.

"Hey, I do my homework!" Rin defended.

"Only after it's passed the due date, and that's usually because Bon or Shiemi helped you with it."

"Yeah, well, who cares as long as it gets done?! Besides, I learn from experience, not by listening to you or reading some dumb book."

"Well, maybe if you did pick up a book every once in a while, those experiences might be a little less painful."

"Hey, I read!"

"Manga doesn't count."

"It's still reading!" Rin defended.

"But you don't learn anything from it, Rin. How do you expect to become Paladin if all you do is cook, sleep, and read manga? If you still want to surpass me, you have a long way to go."

"Are you trying to pick a fight with me ya four eyed, mole face?!"

The two brothers continued bickering nearly the entire way back to the dorms and after a hearty dinner of beef and curry rice Rin and Ukuobach whipped up, they decorated their empty walls with pictures of their mother and grandmother. Rin stuck the picture of Yuri during the school festival on his bedside table and Yukio put a photo of a slightly younger looking Yuri working in the garden and smiling brightly at the camera. Now they would be able to see her smiling face every morning when they woke up.

A/N: Well, there you have it- that's the end of my story! I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! I'm glad you enjoyed this story and am looking forward to writing more Blue Exorcist stories in the future.