Daddy.

Rin was calling again, and Shiro wanted to look. It had been ages since Rin last called him that, and he wanted to look at Rin one more time.

What had he been doing...?

That sudden desire had made him alert, far more alert than he had ever been, since...he couldn't remember. How long had he been in this place?

Daddy...?

Shiro wanted to respond. Rin needed a response.

Daddy!

Shiro fought, harder than he ever had before, seized by a sudden burst of strength. He needed to wake from this peaceful, serene state. Get to Rin.

Get to his son.

Beep. Beeeeeeeep.

Rin. His son. All thoughts blurred, focusing on those two words. Memories came in a rush. Last time he saw Rin, he was entrapped within the Gehenna Gate. Terrified. No father to protect him.

Shiro needed to go back for Rin.

His thoughts became clearer as he struggled, holding onto Rin in a vice grip.

Yukio. They had always been a team when out on a mission. He wondered whether Yukio would be able to adjust his fighting style to fill in the emptiness where a father had once stood and protected him.

Shiro wasn't sure what he was supposed to be fighting, but he had remained in his peaceful state for a long time, how long he cannot say, and this moment of clarity brought on by Rin's voice had made him realize terrible things. Things that he could no longer afford to ignore.

He could grasp reality now, and allowed himself a small moment of triumph. He heard voices, real this time, not traveling through a fog just to reach him. He reached more.

And recoiled as a wave of pain hit him. He hadn't felt anything for so long that it took him by surprise and nearly had his conscious curled into a ball, ready to retreat, if it were not for Rin urgently calling out to him.

"Come on, you stupid old geezer you don't give me hope and let it go like that! Wake up, damnit!"

Shiro clawed his way back, gaining lost ground faster than he ever thought possible.

He was greeted by a set of pointed canines and pointed ears, and without registering the fact that it belonged to his eldest son, years of reflex kicked in and he punched Rin before going under once more, thankfully not to the half awake place before, but rather to the bliss of sleep.

Welcome to Son, requested by 27kirune12. She originally requested it as a sequel to Daddy, but I felt that it would be hard to accept into the plot. So here you can either read it as Shiro has always been in a coma and Rin knew, or he didn't. Either way, this is set after the Kyoto Arc.

Shiro awoke once more to black dots on white. It took a moment for him to realize that most of the white was the ceiling, and the rest belonged to Yukio's face, which was nestled beside him on the bed. His arms pillowed his head, and his back was arched from the plastic chair beside the bed.

Shiro turned his head to the left slowly, still unused to movement. His neck cracked and he winced. How long? What happened?

Satan and blue flames. Pain. Rin screaming. Himself pushing past some indescribable barrier. A warm embrace. Darkness.

And that peaceful, serene feeling that left him incapable, or maybe just unwilling to measure the passage of time. He had started to lose himself in there, enjoying it, and now, back to full awareness, it scared him badly. He did not forget, but he merely let go.

Shiro shut his eyes for a moment, trying to process and reason out everything. The sound of the door opening and closing rang loudly in the silence, but the soft footfalls were barely audible.

"Yukio." The voice was low, a whisper. "Wake up. I've got food."

Ah, Rin. Both of his sons were by his side at the moment, and Shiro did not open his eyes. How long? How much had they changed? What happened during the time he wasn't there? Would they hate him for leaving them?

"Mmmph." Shiro had never heard Yukio sound so disoriented since he turned fourteen. He always woke up on his own by then and went to sleep after everyone else.

"Here. Eat something. I'll take over for the moment. You need to rest properly, Yukio. You have class tomorrow. Classes. One that you teach and the other where you sit and learn boring stuff. The old man will be fine."

There was the sound of a Tupperware being opened and a delicious smell wafted across the room, reminding Shiro very strongly of his earthly desires. He did his best to swallow his saliva in a way that wasn't deafening. So far, so good. Rin cooked, and Yukio was overworking himself.

Then he remembered Rin's startled, fanged expression and pointed ears.

Would his sons still be the same?

"No, nii-san. I appreciate the offer, but I would rather stay here. Don't worry about your tutoring, I contacted Suguro-san, and he said that he would be able to take over your classes. You'd better not fail after this."

"I know, I know, it's my head on the chopping block. But seriously, Yukio, ever since the old man last woke up during my shift and punched me you have been taking all of the shifts. You'll run yourself down like this!" Shiro recognized genuine concern in Rin's voice and internally winced. It had been reflex, not even a moment to think, and he had automatically classified Rin's demon characteristics into 'bad' and lashed out at him. God. Sixteen years of trying to brainwash himself and the twins into believing demons can be both good and bad, just like humans, and he punches his elder son for looking like a demon on reflex.

Wait. Whose head was on the chopping board?!

Oh yes, he would slaughter the Vatican for this. Not as Paladin, but as a father.

"I want to be by his side when he wakes again." Yukio said. "I missed out the first time, and I don't think he needs to be punching anyone to moment he wakes."

"Oi! Rin sounded offended. "He was possessed by Satan last, of course the natural course of action is to punch someone, that someone being me! I can take it, no problem. I heal fast. It's a good thing that I was the one there, actually, or you would have a bruise for a week."

"Don't you get it?" Yukio said softly, and Shiro snapped his eyes open at last, unable to take it any longer, knowing that Yukio had worked it out through pure logic. "He saw your fangs and ears. He saw a demon and he reacted in self defense. I don't want you to get hurt again, nii-san. I don't want to tell you this, but you need to understand that your awakened self probably isn't the best sight for him right now."

No one noticed that Shiro was already alert, Yukio was too focused on Rin and Rin was still recoiling from Yukio's words. His eyes travelled to Shiro's face, and met his foster father's startled eyes.

"I...I don't..." He choked off, and bolted. Yukio started to go after him, but remembered his duty to watch over his father, and torn for a moment, hesitated.

"Go after him."

His voice was hoarse, croaky. But he was determined that it would be heard, and obeyed.

Apparently, Yukio was determined to do the opposite.

"Father. You just woke up and I will not be going anywhere. I understand that you might be quite confused, but stay calm and I will explain."

"Get Rin and you explain together!" Shiro nearly yelled but the strain it put on his throat sent him coughing. Yukio quickly got a glass of water and helped him drink it as his hands were shaking. He then cranked up the head of the bed to help Shiro sit up. "Father. Before you see him there are a few things I need to tell you about him. Firstly, I assume that you informed him of the dangers of drawing the Kurikura. He disobeyed and drew it, awakening. Thus, he is now a demon possessing the blue fire of Satan, but he's still Rin. So Father, please don't overreact the next time you see him. His friends know, and so do the Vatican. They did not accept him kindly, and his friends have only started seeing him truly after he almost died time and time over again, would have died if not for his remarkable healing abilities. Nii-san has been hurt too many times. You might feel differently now that he has awakened, and I admit so did I at the start. But for his sake, pretend for a while. Please."

Yukio, Shiro realized, was trying to protect Rin in his own, logical and faultless way. And really, he loved his younger son so much.

But it hurt that Yukio thought Rin needed to be protected from him. How many times had Rin been hurt, how many times had Yukio needed to protect his brother to flip it on automatically with every new person who encountered Rin's newly fledged demonic abilities? Or was it him? Did the boys not trust their daddy anymore?

Rin had called him daddy.

It was what woke him up, pulled him out from the coma Satan's possession had supposedly put him under. His attempted suicide had apparently made Satan leave his body early enough for him to be saved.

"I won't pretend to be anything I'm not." Shiro stared at Yukio's bento, dropped on the floor when Rin fled. Yukio opened his mouth, but Shiro continued. "I love you two and always will. If I have any issues with his demonic abilities, I will get over it before he even knows. Oh wait, he already does!"

Yukio half smiled. "Welcome back, tou-san." He caught the direction of Shiro's hopeful gaze. "And no, those are fries. You need something light."

"Can it at least be cooked by Rin?"

Rin didn't run far. He thought that he would have, given that he had nearly ran out of True Cross Town itself in twenty minutes flat after his friends had rejected him for the second time, the first time being when he had just recovered from being lost in is flames.

But then he had felt anger and desperation. Now, it was like all the energy had been sucked out of him. Sadness and despair consumed him. Who was he to believe that people could love him for who he was? Certainly his friends did, but it took a hard and long time to earn. Why did he have to earn everything?

Rin swallowed a sob. Did he deserve this? Having to work hard for every little scrap of affection, to face the pain of being rejected over and over again? Was it because he hurt so many people when he was younger? Or because his birth caused the death of his mother, the sin of matricide?

He reached the school fountain, empty at this hour. It was barely dawn now, four in the morning. He flung himself into the water, crying and screaming and drowning, until he simply stopped and fell asleep, drenched to the bone.

That was how Suguro found him in the afternoon, on the way to cram school.

Leaning against the outer rim of the fountain, brow furrowed, even in sleep. A single tear seeped out from beneath his closed eyelids and Suguro was positive that it was not water from his once dripping, now drying hair. In his arms Kurikura was clutched tightly, the red bag drying off in the sun. His knees were drawn towards his chest loosely.

"O-Oi. Okumura?" Suguro stared for a moment. Shima was off buying drinks at the moment, and Konekomaru had opted to use the key straight to the classroom. Suguro was taking a lot of courses in main school, so he wanted to drop his books off at his dorm. Rin hadn't shown up for class today, and being the nice and fair rival he was, he took a detour to the abandoned dorm and didn't even make it halfway before finding Rin in the more abandoned section of True Cross Academy. "Wake up." He pushed Rin lightly. Rin groaned and his breath hitched, eyelids fluttering open.

"Okumura? Were you trying to get sick?! A Fire half demon drenching himself and then baking himself...what the heck were you thinking?" Suguro ranted, trying to fathom why-why did Rin feel not Rin.

His features were the same.

"M sorry...I'll try not to do it again." Rin shook his head a little and stood up, wiping his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

His voice was the same.

"We have PE today, you know. Do you want to take a day off? You look pretty beat." Suguro continued, intently looking at Rin, who seemed to be just focusing on the ground.

His stupid crazy attitude was still there.

"Hell no. I won't miss a chance to trounce you." Rin looked up and smiled impishly at him.

And Suguro realized what was different.

Rin's eyes had no spark in them anymore.

"Let's go." Rin walked off.

"What happened?" Suguro caught up and kept pace with him, which was noticeably slower than before.

"Nothing." Rin's stride became unsteady.

"If you say so." Suguro finally decided to let it go. Rin can be very stubborn when he wants to be. Plus, they were about to be late. "Hey, over here. This door is nearer."

"Right." Rin turned as Suguro inserted the key. "Trust your rooster headed ass to choose the lazy route." He smirked a little. Suguro growled and turned the key. "You stupid monkey, I'm not letting you in if you want to walk all the way to Rome!"

Rin's gaze grew panicked as he sprinted for the door that Suguro was closing in his face. "Waaaaiiiiiiit! I forgot my key!"

Suguro laughed, letting Rin slip through the small crack he left open and kicked the door shut, racing the shorter boy to the end of the hallway where their class awaited.

Maybe he just had a bad day at school today, that's all.

Rin won the race, by the way.

They had another lecture on Demon Biology first before actually being allowed to enter the training room.

"Today, you are going to be facing higher class demons, given that you have been attacked by a Demon King before, our Chairman deemed it necessary to give you a basic idea of higher level demons and how they tick in case you run into another Demon King again, though it is not likely. Today we will be training with a Kappa, a more humanoid high level demon. While legend says that it loses its power once the water in the bowl in its head is emptied, those of you who have done your homework will do well to remember that they are among the higher level of Water Demons, and can gain power from the moisture in the air. Their weakness is fire, as common sense tells us, but only a few Fire Demons are of a high enough level to cancel out their watery powers." The teacher glanced at Rin, but did not say anything. He then clapped his hands. "Now. You will face this demon individually first, to gain a basic understanding of the demon and your respective abilities, then as a group. You go in alphabetical order of your names. First up, Kamiki Izumo!"

Izumo calmly stood and scaled down the ladder leading to the makeshift arena the housed the demons they practiced with. She looked up at the control cage. "Sir, are we allowed to use our respective abilities to combat the demons or we are just supposed to familiarize ourselves with their moving patterns?"

"Combat, but non lethal."

"Understood." Izumo summoned her familiars. "Uke, Mike, immobilize that demon." She pointed at the Kappa which started to move warily towards her.

"There is a chain around its neck. Is that not what you humans call immobilized?" Uke snarled.

"You ask us to attack our own kind which is being used by humans as study subjects?!" Mike growled.

"Just empty the water on its head." The teacher called.

"Follow my orders." Izumo calmly said.

The Inari foxes reluctantly complied, spinning around the Kappa and finally Mike succeeded in causing the Kappa to lose its balance and fall.

"Done." Izumo turned to leave, but then noticed a strange swirling in the air. "Wait..."

The Kappa regained its balance, and flew straight for Izumo's throat as the moisture in the air condensed to fill up the bowl once more. Izumo could not resist letting out a yelp and dove sideways, but the Kappa had good maneuverability as well as an enormous speed, and as Izumo lost her balance due to the dive, she fell to the ground as the Kappa changed direction speedily and would have bitten her head off if Uke had not come flying and crashed into the Kappa's side, sending water sloshing out once more and the teacher jerked the control chain backwards, yanking the Kappa back to its original place where it thrashed.

"You will survive." He said simply to Izumo as she shakily thanked her familiars for once and dispelled them before scaling the ladder. "Next up, Miwa Konekomaru."

Konekomaru was sweating nervously as he descended. At least he now had a basic idea of what the demon's strengths are, thanks to Izumo's demonstration, but defeating them was the problem. The minute he reached the bottom rung of the ladder, he set up a Fire based barrier around him and tried a few Water demon fatal verses.

They weakened the Kappa, but not much. It's eyes swiveled to rest on Konekomaru, identifying the small boy as the source of its discomfort, and charged.

And they found out that the Kappa had a good brake ability as well. The minute it sensed the heat radiating from the barrier, which Konekomaru was now tripling, it stopped abruptly and started to circle the boy, looking for a chink. Finding none, it simply walked as close as it dared to the barrier and stopped, waiting. Sweat dripped from Konekomaru's bald head as he realized this waiting game could only last as long as he chanted, and once he stopped he would be done for. Instead, he started to wrap a piece of the barrier around his right leg, a trick he had learned from Kyoto after hearing how Suguro had survived by using a piece of the barrier to protect himself from the miasma. Then he aimed a sidekick at the Kappa's bowl.

The Kappa was faster, using its spindly hands to block the blow, even though steam rose from the limbs but it did not flinch, instead gripping the boy's ankle and tossing him far across the arena, and would have dashed after him to do more damage had the teacher not wrenched the chain back once more.

"Next time, train your reflexes and opt for the waiting game if you are not confident you can pull it off." The teacher advised.

Konekomaru nodded, wincing, and picked himself off the ground. The teacher looked at the next person in line, frowning a little. "Moriyama Shiemi."

"H-Hai!" Shiemi fingered the sleeve of her school uniform nervously. "Let's go, nii-chan!"

"Good luck." Rin called and Shiemi smiled at him, summoning a cage of gnarled roots to entrap the demon before she reached the ground. If not for Konekomaru using that barrier she would not even have thought of this idea.

Konekomaru did not use that for a reason.

The Kappa, apparently, was claustrophobic.

And when faced with their deepest fears, a demon unleashes their true potential.

A black limb whipped out of the cage, and Shiemi quickly created a barrier around herself, which was useless as the Kappa simply absorbed all the moisture in the plant based barrier and left them crumpling to the ground. Shiemi ran, but the Kappa was faster. As the Kappa was about to grab Shiemi's shoulder, Nii-chan sprayed chili into the Kappa's eyes. The Kappa howled and fell back as Shiemi quickly bound the demon with a chili plant.

"Good job, Moriyama-san. Your advantage is your good relationship with your familiar, who apparently has a good knowledge of demonic weaknesses." Tsubaki-sensei smiled at the first student who had actually accomplished the goal of containing the demon. "Please exit the arena and undo the bindings."

Shiemi laughed breathlessly at her superior accomplishment, which was especially rare in P.E. She climbed up, giddy with joy and immediately bounced off to Rin, forgetting all about undoing the poor demon's bindings. "Rin! I did it!"

"Yeah, we need to tell Yukio about this!" Rin grinned. "See, now you're really our strongest member!"

Shiemi blushed. "Really?"

Rin opened his mouth to say more, but was cut off as the teacher cleared his throat loudly from the platform. "Moriyama-san? The bindings. Okumura-kun, you are up next."

"Right." Rin didn't even bother to take the ladder, just jumped down from where he was. "Permission to use my flames?" He asked.

Tsubaki-sensei considered this for a moment. "Only in life threatening situations."

"If the Kappa goes for my throat I'm so burning it." Rin muttered.

"Non lethal!" The teacher reminded sharply. "We went through some trouble to find and capture this!"

Rin did not say anything more, just walked straight up to the demon. Surprisingly, it did not attack him.

"Provoke it." Tsubaki-sensei said. "You need to learn how to defend yourself from it."

Rin frowned. He faced the demon now, and it was practically cowering away from him. "Um? It seems to be scared?"

The teacher looked at this curious sight and sighed. "This rare occurrence for a demon to not attack someone...it fears you as it would fear Satan."

Rin's face crumpled, though with his back to everyone else no one noticed. "I...I'm not him."

The demon let out a loud screech that nearly sent Rin a few steps back, with his overly sensitive ears. "Stop it! She's scared!"

"She?" Everyone was confused for a moment, then caught on that Rin was referring to the demon, which now lunged for Rin. Rin was too startled to move, as the Kappa transformed its fear into anger and strength and in one go, emptied all the water upon its head bowl onto Rin.

Rin screamed. The teacher dragged the demon back, which was limp after it poured the water onto Rin, who was still screaming. Blue flames erupted in small explosions all around the teen, but sputtered out just as quickly. Shiemi ran for the ladder-Suguro and Shima jumped straight down, the only two students who hadn't had their go yet. Izumo disappeared around the corner, presumably to get another teacher, hopefully a qualified Doctor Meister. Konekomaru froze for a moment and followed Shiemi down.

Shima was the faster runner, even though Suguro worked out more often, and reached Rin first. Tsubaki-sensei had reeled the Kappa up and was looking it over, frowning, while sending side glances at Rin whose screams had quieted, but the agony was clearly still present.

"I." He ground out as Shima checked him for wounds and Suguro skidded to a halt, panting. "Am. Rin. Not Satan." Shima and Suguro gasped as they noticed that some of the Kappa's water had gotten into Rin's mouth, and was now causing black and blue to spread through the veins on Rin's body.

"We know, we know." Shima tried, prying Rin's hands away from his eyes before he clawed them out. "Where does it hurt?"

Shiemi and Konekomaru had reached Rin's side by now too. Rin stopped struggling and obediently let Shima force his hands away.

His classmates did not gasp. They would do so later, when Rin was taken to an Exorcist hospital.

This condition was rare, very rare.

A Kappa would rarely be driven so to empty ever last drop of Water Magic within its body onto a fellow demon. The only known case was twenty years ago, when a half demon Exorcist exterminated a nest of baby Kappas and the mother returned. The Exorcist did not survive.

Rarer was that the current demon was the son of Satan, and possessed the blue flames, thus being affiliated with the Fire Kingdom. Water and fire did not mix well, and the Vatican considered this a great opportunity.

Pit a high level water demon's every last drop of magic against the second possessor of the blue flames and see whether said possessor would have enough to fight off the magic and still have enough to keep on living. Or run out and die. This was a test, an unwitting one, but good, in the eyes of the Vatican. If Okumura Rin survived, they had a strong weapon against most demons, probably even standing a chance against the Eight Demon Kings. If he died, it saved them the trouble of the constant petitions for his executions and they were rid of one more threat.

It was a win-win situation for them.

But Rin did not feel like a winner.

Here he was, running a high fever, barely coherent, feeling pain attack every inch of his body. No one dared to touch him as the small blue flames were still sputtering in and out on his body, and he was forced to drag himself to the bathroom for a small bath to lower his temperature.

"Okumura?" He heard Bon calling as he was about to slip under the surface of the water and tried to lift his head, his hands attempting to help lift his unresponsive body but just slipped off the edge of the bathtub, unable to apply enough force. Water slopped a little around him and he struggled to rise, despite his weak body. He did not, but he created enough noise for Bon to locate him and kick open the door of bathroom. Suddenly he was very glad that he had not enough energy to take off his clothes before dunking himself.

"Oi, are you mad? You are going to kill yourself one of head days, I swear." Bon ranted as he gently extracted Rin from the bathtub, a little relieved at the lower temperature but still disturbed as less flames flickered around Rin's limp body. "What on earth possessed you to dunk yourself in MORE water?"

"Sorry." Rin mumbled. "Dad...Shiro. He did that when we got sick as kids."

Fujimoto Shiro. The only man who survived possession by Satan, but was currently in a coma. "Do you want to see him later? He's only two floors below, you know." Shima said. Suguro looked at his friend in mild surprise. Shima can be surprisingly attentive to his friends' other needs at times.

To their surprise, Rin shook his head vehemently. "No. Let Yukio...stay with him."

"Okumura-sensei!" Izumo remembered suddenly. "We haven't told him!"

"I'll go!" Shiemi volunteered, and ran off.

Suguro found a new set of hospital scrubs laid out neatly on the bedside drawer. "Seriously. They expect you to dress yourself in that state? I'll do it. Kamiki, you can wait in the bathroom or the corridor."

"I'll go find Moriyama." She said instead and left. Suguro enlisted Shima's help to undress Rin and dry him as Konekomaru cleaned up the bathroom. Rin moaned a little. "Don't." He said, weakly grabbing Shima's hand and drew back as a burst of blue fire swelled. "You'll burn."

"No, we won't. See?" Shima easily overpowered Rin in his current weak state and forced Rin to lie still and passed his hand through the flickering blue fire and waved the undo aged hand before Rin's bleary eyes. "It's okay. You don't burn us. We can help you."

"I don't need it!" Rin lashed out, sweeping Suguro's hands off him as he attempted to button his shirt. Then he stopped, realizing what he had done and curled in on himself, the top two buttons of his shirt left undone. "Sorry."

Suguro opened his mouth to scold Rin, but swallowed it back forcefully. The fire bursts were getting less, he noted. Hopefully that was a good sign.

"It's okay , it's okay." Shima soothed. He had seen it plenty of times when his father was consoling his older brothers from nightmares of the Blue Night. "Yukio's coming soon, and heck, he can tell you how your father's been doing."

"No!" Rin screamed, thrashing even harder. "I don't want Yukio! I don't want dad either!"

"Rin..."

Shiro stopped in front of the door in his wheelchair, stunned.

"Fujimoto-san?!" Suguro exclaimed, then looked at Yukio who was pushing the wheelchair. "You are awake? Rin never said..."

"Go away!" Rin yelled, and blue flames set the room awash for a moment. When the blinding blue was over, Rin was panting, and his clothes were damp with perspiration. His eyes were shiny and glossed over, either with tears or the fever no one knew.

"What." Shiro leveled a stare at the Exwires. "Happened to my son."

Shima buttoned up the two remaining buttons of Rin's shirt and told him softly to rest. Rin closed his eyes for a while and gave in at last. Konekomaru exited the bathroom, drawn by the commotion, and quickly bowed at the sight of the former Paladin, who was being wheeled into the room by Yukio.

"You are his friends?" He asked. Izumo and Shiemi followed behind.

"Yes." Suguro answered levelly. "He doesn't want you around now."

Shiro put a hand to his face, sighing deeply. "I can explain. Long story short, I punched him."

"Um, why?" Shima asked, and cast a glance at Rin who was glaring at them feverishly.

"Let's all go out for a moment and let Fujimoto-san explain." Shiemi suggested. "Rin will be okay."

They strolled along the hospital grounds, which were overflowing with greenery and flowers, so that the long term patients would at least have something to look at during their stay.

"So you punched Rin." Izumo stated. "I'm assuming it was a mistake."

If it wasn't we'd have your hide. Her eyes seemed to be saying.

"I woke up and was confused. I saw his fangs-his teeth. His ears. I didn't think, I just reacted on pure instinct." Shiro attempted to explain. Yukio pushed the wheelchair until it was level with a bench, which he seated himself on and motioned for his students to do the same. Shiemi and Shima accepted.

"We understand." Konekomaru said. "I am ashamed to admit this, but I was probably the most discriminating one out of us all. I was the only one who gave him the silent treatment because of his demonic descent as far as I can tell. Bon, Moriyama-san, I guess they were just angry that Rin didn't tell but confused it with other feelings. Shima-kun and Kamiki-san weren't hostile in their feelings, but they didn't interact much with him either, Kamiki-san because it's her personality to do so and Shima-kun is mainly because of Bon and I. But I have learned, and I hope that you will too, in time."

Shiro groaned in frustration. "You guys…you don't get me! I punched him because of his features, I didn't see him, I just saw demon characteristics. I don't hate him, I want to accept him. It's just reflex."

"Reflex that you didn't get rid of during the past sixteen years?" Suguro asked testily.

"…what is done is done, and I can say that I regret it more than any one of you." Shiro admitted. "Question is…I want to fix it. Will you help me?"

Rin awoke, surfacing from a deep sleep. He felt better, almost as if he'd just returned from taking a really long hot bath.

He kept his eyes closed for a while, taking in sensations and recovering memories. That's right, he was in the hospital. After having angered a Kappa…somehow.

Then the geezer had shown up. With Yukio. He distinctly remembered drowning in a bath, being lifted out. In which order? He'd forgotten. He shuddered a little. Kappas are scary, he decided.

Finally, he opened his eyes. To find a Kappa staring at him, bowl poised to pour over him.

He shrieked and kicked out, tearing his arm free from the IV line and unleashed a wave of blue flames at the Kappa. The Kappa reeled, water sloshing and spilling over the edge, scrambling backwards in-wait, was that a wheelchair?

Rin reeled in the blue flames as fast as he could, slipping a little as he tried to sit up properly. "Oi!"

The door opened, and Yukio entered, checking Shiro, who had removed the Kappa mask over with a grim satisfaction. "Not hurt, but a bit singed. Good. Next time please attempt not to do stupid things like that again."

"There's a next time?" Rin asked incredulously. "Sorry, but try not to scare me like that again? What was that for anyway?! You know I could have seriously killed you, right? You know instinct, I was just being killed by a Kappa one minute and the other, you were there with a Kappa mask on!"

"That's my apology. Now we're even." Shiro attempted a grin. "I punched you cause of your fangs and everything, but now that you nearly annihilated me with your flames because of a Kappa mask, I'd say we understand each other now."

Rin stared, dumbfounded. He opened his mouth slightly and sucked in some air before he started giving Shiro the loudest telling off he had ever heard in his life, and being that he was one of those people who actually worked their way up the Exorcist ranking instead of just using connections, he got told off more than enough times to last during his younger days.

"Alright that's enough you stupid old geezer I understand but seriously do you need to do that?! What if you'd died?! It was hard enough the first time round, now you wanna die a second time? Ever heard of something called talking? It involves not dying, no flames, a peaceful talk! Don't you ever risk your life like that again! It's not worth it!" He paused taking in a breath, and slightly calmer, said, "Now I'm the one giving the scolding. Catch up, geezer."

Shiro started to laugh. The laughter only grew as a nurse opened the door to yell at whoever was being so loud as to disturb the patients, only to find out it was the patient himself doing the yelling.

Yukio grinned, one of those rare grins that rarely appeared on his stoic face nowadays.

"It's good to have both idiots back."

So...Kappa beserking! Not many demons like Satan...what can I say...and given that blue flames are Satan's trademark, and high level demons can sense auras and stuff, the Kappa had no reason to be friendly towards Rin.

She didn't like it.

This strange place, strange people...she reacted the only way she knew. She fought.

Really. She was minding her own business, scouring the swamps for fresh food. She hoped that there would be more of those two legged creatures, which were easy prey and had enough meat to be feasted on for a long while. They rarely came here though, and she didn't feel like going out after them. There were four legged creatures for her eating as well, but her children were growing, and the two legged creatures may sustain them for a while.

But then they came in after her. But they weren't easy prey this time. They were predators, hurting her with strange water and flying stones, and they chained her up, taking her away from her children.

Then they took her to a bright, bright place and left her there. For a long time. She was faint with hunger, but more with longing for her swamp, her children. Lord Satan would send someone to collect soon, and if she couldn't deliver her yearly penance to the King of Hell, her children would pay. Dearly.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly there was a two legged one, bringing younglings. They were far, and high up, so she couldn't reach them if she tried. But then they were talking, and one youngling, with two streams of some purple unidentifiable substance streaming from her head. She did something, and suddenly two of her own kind was there with her, and she stared at them pleadingly.

They hesitated, the youngling spoke, and all of a sudden they were flying towards her. They whirled around her, making her collapse and spill her water-her life.

Her vision went red. If it was her child who had their water tipped, they would be unable to condense the moisture in the air and get a power refill of sorts-they were not yet mature enough. If this youngling did this to her, who was to say she wouldn't do it to her children?

She flew for her throat, but one of those foxes crashed into her, sending her off course. The cuff around her neck, which she'd quite forgotten about, tightened and she was yanked back, growling and snarling.

Then a boy with strange contraptions on his nose came, and a girl with yet more of that strange substance, except yellow and much shorter on her head. She was getting tired. She wanted to get back.

Then the last boy came. A youngling, with the blue spark. She shied away from him, wanting to run. It was not time yet! She had not prepared the yearly penance, and her children would pay for it. But He was powerful, and surely this one, possessor of the same power, would have no trouble dispatching her as well.

But her dear little children...

With one last yowl of desperation, she gave in to death.

Aaaaaaaand feel free to request more stories.

Urai Eku!

"Finally, the taste of the heavens~" Shiro drooled as Rin served a second helping of the Super Okumura Rin Yellow Special. "This still doesn't get you out of trouble though. What did I say about drawing the sword?"

"Aw, geezer-"

"Time out in the corner. Five minutes. Your cooking has paid its penance."

"...?!"