Hello! I humbly greet thee!

Having recently finished my university finals, I have been spending a stupid amount of time on Netflix (a joyous affliction, I must say). A few days ago I stumbled upon Blue Exorcist and I was hooked. I blew through the series in under 24 hours. And that's including a good 12 hour bout of unconsciousness. My creative juices started flowing immediately, thus we have our story.

A few things before we get started: 1) I am still reading the manga. In a not so legal on-line way. I'm trying to stay away from major spoilers, so be aware that I have a limited amount of knowledge over the series. 2) I'm a failure at Japanese culture. I don't know much about it. I hate to admit it. If I offend anyone, please let me know in a constructive way and I will do my best to correct myself.

Now please! Go forth and enjoy!

Chapter One:

Beginnings

"Rin got fired again."

Kazuki heaved a sigh that came from the depths of her very put upon soul. She turned and gave Yukio a dry look. "And? What do you want me to do about that?"

Her little brother stood in the doorway to her room clutching a first aid kit in his hands. She raised an eyebrow at it.

"He also got in fight."

Cue another sigh.

"Please, Kazuki. I'm leaving for the Academy tomorrow. Someone's got to talk some sense into him. He always listens to you more than me."

She could never tell him no when he looked at her with those pleading eyes. And he knew it, too. Damn four-eyed bastard.

"I don't know what miracles you expect me to work," she told him as they made their way to the monastery kitchen. "I'm only marginally less of a screw up than him. I'm not what you would call a role-model."

"You understand him better. I…I worry for him." He wouldn't meet her eyes "And you."

Kazuki's heart warmed at her little brother's admission. Truth was, she was a little worried about her and Rin as well. The two of them had always been the troublemakers of the triplets, quick to resort to violence and anger. They had managed to channel some of it over the years, instead of lashing out at everything and everyone, they focused it on protecting Yukio from anyone who wanted to harm their little brother. But as Yukio became more independent, lately Rin and Kazuki both were floundering in a sea of their anger. What would happen once Yukio left them behind?

Clenching her fists at the thought, Kazuki immediately pulled her brother into a headlock.

"Hey!"

"You worry too much, lil' bro." She dug her knuckles into his scalp and ruined his perfect hairdo, laughing as he squirmed. "We'll be fine. Worry more about becoming a doctor."

He pushed her away with more force than she was expecting, causing her to stumble. She caught a glimpse of anger in his eyes and Kazuki wondered if maybe now wasn't the time to tease him. She was uncomfortably aware of how little time they had left together.

He made sure she wasn't going to fall before they continued walking. She took the silent apology for what it was.

"You know he never fights without a good reason," she murmured quietly.

"Is there ever a good reason for him to fight?" Yukio asked bitterly.

A scowl formed on her face. "Yes, there is."

"I stopped needing to be protected a long time ago, Kazuki," Yukio murmured. "And yet the two of you keep getting into fights. If I no longer need protecting, then why do you keep fighting?"

Pursing her lips, Kazuki looked away, trying not to think about the scraped knuckles that had finally healed from a scuffle she had gotten in a few days before. She didn't bother trying to explain to Yukio that a bunch of bullies had cornered a little kid behind the flower shop she worked at. He had stopped listening to her explanations a long time ago. Had stopped listening to her and Rin both.

Sometimes she wondered if maybe it was better that Yukio was leaving. At least they wouldn't have to live with seeing their younger brother's disappointment in them every day.

Kazuki sat off to the side as Yukio bandaged Rin's busted hands.

"So I guess this is the last time you'll be patching me up," Rin commented sadly, a fond smile on his face. Kazuki's heart clinched at the words. Yukio's departure was hitting the oldest triplet the worst. But almost instantly Rin was all smiles, gushing over Yukio and his dreams of being a doctor. Maybe the two oldest triplets didn't have their life together, but damn were they proud that their youngest was making something of himself.

"Rin, I'm worried," Yukio confessed to his brother, glancing a Kazuki too. "And it's not just me. Dad's worried too, and so is everyone else here. You're getting into fights every day, and you can't seem to hold a part time job very long."

Rin instantly deflated, the proud older brother vanishing in a wave of sadness. He looked away from Yukio. "Look, I'm really stressed by all that, too. I know I gotta pull it together, and fast, but I…" he trailed off. Rin hesitantly glanced at her, their eyes meeting. In her mind's eye, Kazuki saw a group of rowdy well-to-do teens, dead birds, and felt a rage that wasn't her own take over from there.

Rin's eyes held a question in them. She gave him a small nod, letting him know that she had seen what had transpired. No need to bother Yukio with it. At least he knew that Kazuki believed him.

"You're trying," Kazuki told him, holding his gaze. She then gave Yukio a hard glare. "We both are. That's enough for now."

Yukio at least had the sense to look sheepish. The corners of her mouth turned upwards. Damn Four-Eyes, thinking he could play at being an older sibling. She reached over and ruffled his hair as payment for his insubordination.

"Rin!" a Maruta yelled, causing them all to jump. "We got you an interview at the Southern Cross Shopping Mall!"

Kazuki roared with laughter at her older brother. Stuffed in a suit a little too big for him and slowly choking himself with a necktie, Rin looked the definition misery.

"How the hell are you supposed to tie this?" Rin cried, having since knotted the necktie in such a way that he was now resorting to trying to pull it off over his head so he could resume breathing. Another wave a giggles overtook her and he shot her a glare. "Make yourself useful or piss off!"

"Yessir," she snickered, turning to waltz out the door.

"Wait! You weren't supposed to actually leave! Kazuki, help!" He stumbled after her, tripping over the dress shoes he was wearing as he did so. It was her fast reflexes that prevented him from ending up in a pile of limbs on the floor.

"Jeez, walk much?" She planted him back on his feet and straightened his jacket. He was still fumbling with the stupid ass tie. Rolling her eyes, she smacked him on the head and pushed his hands out of the way.

"Hey!" He gave her a glare that lacked heat and allowed her to slowly untangle him from the trap he had created. Once he was free he gave her a sheepish smile. "Thanks."

"Shut up." She threw the tie back at him, hitting him in the face with it and making him shriek.

Smirking, she wrestled him into the hallway bathroom and went to work on his godawful hair, trying to shape it into something a little more presentable than its usual mop using a wet comb. He squirmed the entire time.

"Will you stop moving?" Kazuki whacked him on the head.

"Will you stop yanking my hair out?" Rin shot back at her, trying to shield his head with his arms. "It never did anything to you!"

"I'm trying to make it look like you haven't been raised on the streets," she growled, twisting his arms out of the way, ignoring his shouts of pain, and resumed the battle on his hair.

Eventually, Rin figured out resistance was futile and took to moping as she finished.

"I don't know why you're bothering," he muttered unhappily. "It's not like I'm going to get the job anyways. No one wants to hire thug like me."

Kazuki sighed and ran her fingers through his dark blue hair. They shared the same hair color, the same unnatural navy blue that was so different from Yukio's brown. It was like a higher power had wanted to mark them as different from the beginning, one normal sibling and two blue-haired freaks. She met his eyes in the mirror, blue on blue.

"You don't know that," she told him, running her comb through his hair one last time. "This time will be different."

"How you know?" Rin asked.

She gave him a cocky grin in the mirror and slapped the comb down on the counter. "Woman's intuition."

Rin made a disgusted face and scrambled out of the bathroom. Kazuki rolled her eyes. Boys. Whoever plopped her down in a monastery was surely having a good laugh right about now.

"Good luck!" she yelled after him.

"Yeah, whatever," he called back, but she could hear the smile in his voice.

She looked up at the ceiling and glared at the higher being above that may or may not exist. Real or not, she would out-stubborn it until it gave her older brother a break for once in his life.

She ran into her father on his way back from the store. He was unloading groceries from the car.

"Hey, old man, need a hand?"

Her dad waved her over.

"How have you been today, Kazuki?"

She shrugged, grabbing fistfuls of grocery bags and hauling them out of the trunk. "Helped Yukio pack. Tried to make Rin look presentable for his interview."

Her dad snorted. "Did it work?"

"No, but at least I can say I tried." They dad shared a look before erupting into laughter.

She shouldered open the front door and made her way to the kitchen, placing the groceries on the table, her dad doing the same.

Kazuki paused and sniffed the air. "Oh, man, what is that smell?" She was not drooling. Definitely not drooling.

Her dad smirked and immediately hid a handful of bags behind his back, watching her closely. "Your dinner."

Suddenly excited, she took a step closer to him, sniffing as she went. He deftly took a step back. "I smell beef and… and…" her eyes did not start watering with excitement. They did not. "Is that sukiyaki?" she whispered, her eyes begging her old man not to tell her her nose was wrong.

"Damn, you're good!" her father laughed, pulling her into a hug. She used the proximity to try and make a grab for the food, but he was too fast and held it above her head. "I know I raised you right if you've developed a sniffer like that." He ignored her attempts to try and climb him in order to reach the food.

A bright burst of birdsong erupted above them and they both looked up to see a small fluffy white and black bird pecking at the bags of food.

"Fight Asuka! Win in the name of the fatherland!" Kazuki cheered the bird on.

Asuka let out a loud tweet in response and started pecking at her father's hands in earnest.

Her dad used the bird's distraction as a chance to push Kazuki away from him before turning to swat at the bird fluttering above him. "Damn bird, not you too. One miscreant is enough."

Asuka let out an offended chirp, flew down to land a sharp peck on his nose, and then landed primly on Kazuki's shoulder, tweeting grumpily.

Ignoring her father's curses as he rubbed his nose, Kazuki petted her feathered friend happily. "Good job, girl. You fought bravely." Asuka preened happily.

"Crazy bird," her father muttered, eyeing the little crow tit in case it decided to come back for more. "What have you been teaching that thing?"

Kazuki shielded her tiny Asuka from his judging gaze. "None of your business. Never reveal your secrets to thy enemy."

Her dad adopted a put-upon look. "Good know that I'm the enemy."

"When food is involved, everyone's the enemy. Especially in a house full of men," Kazuki informed her father gravely. He shook his head and laughed happily.

Placing the food on top of the fridge so he would at least notice when Kazuki tried to steal it, they began to put the groceries away. Asuka fluttered in the air and happily perched herself on the fridge beside the food, causing her dad to glare at the tiny tit. Kazuki nodded approvingly.

Asuka had been a surprise that Kazuki had stumbled upon when she was thirteen. She had been skipping school and wandering around the darker parts of town when her musing had been interrupted by frantic tweets. The sounds led her to a tiny baby bird, barely the size of thumb, sitting in what looked to be the remains of a fire. It had been screaming at the top of its tiny lungs as an old tom cat slowly approached it with dinner in mind.

Horrified at what she was witnessing, Kazuki scared the cat away and quickly began looking for the tiny bird's mom. With no nest in sight and the little thing trembling in a pile of ashes, she had quickly made her decision. Scooping the baby bird up, she took it home and secretly began to care for it. Asuka had been surprisingly intelligent and understood that if they didn't want to get caught, the tiny bird had to keep quiet. By the time the old man found out about Kazuki's pet, Asuka had been full-grown and wouldn't leave no matter how much he bitched.

She never knew what had happened to cause the tiny bird to end up on her own. But the pile of ash she had found Asuka in had held the burnt remains of feathers. Sometimes she wondered why her and Rin were the ones accused of being monsters.

"How's the flower shop treating you?" he dad asked casually. Kazuki let out a heartfelt groan. He gave her a dry look. "That bad, huh?"

"Of all the jobs to stick…" she grumbled as she practically threw instant noodles into the pantry.

The One Stop Flower Shop wasn't all that bad, if Kazuki was being honest. It was the people she had to deal with and the bright pink uniform she was forced to wear. "If I get one more love-sick moron walking into the shop saying they want something 'pretty' I'm going to gouge someone's eye out!" she hissed. "What the hell does pretty even mean? Roses? Lilies? One dozen? Two? Make up your damn mind before you ask me for it!"

Her dad eyed her. "You were definitely raised by men," he said quietly to himself.

She shot him a dirty look and chucked the rest of the instant noodles at his head.

The flower shop could be worse, Kazuki would admit that. Old lady Tsubuki ran the place and she didn't care if sometimes Kazuki needed to step outside to calm her head or if she consistently brought Asuka to work with her. In fact, she had started to enjoy working there up until about a week ago when she started to see weird things out of the corner of her eye. She never got a good look, but the shapes she saw were about the size of her hand, completely green, and always seemed to vanish into the flowers the moment she would try and glimpse them full on. She had seen them often enough to make her think she was going crazy.

"Hey, old man," she called.

"Hey, ungrateful brat."

She rolled her eyes, smirking to herself as she let a head of cabbage tumble into the vegetable drawer. "I think I need to get my eyes checked out."

"Because you've never seen someone as handsome as me?" She looked over her shoulder to find him grinning like an idiot in the middle of the kitchen.

"Dad jokes are unbecoming," she told him flatly.

After happily watching him deflate, she went back to her work and continued. "I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye. That's a sign of bad eyesight right? Maybe I need glasses or something."

Instead of some joke about becoming the second four-eyed triplet like she was expecting, Kazuki instead got stunned silence. She quickly looked over her shoulder to find her dad studying her very seriously.

"Dad?" she asked, worried.

Her dad blinked at her, before cracking a grin, all trace of seriousness gone. "Yukio is going to feel so vindicated," he told her.

There it was.

"Oh, shut up."

"Dad, you're back." Kazuki looked up as Yukio walked in.

"Hey, kid. Make yourself useful and help unpack the groceries."

And stop!

We're looking at this being the average length of each chapter, I think. I have a good bit written so far, but I have yet to divide them up into how I will post them.

So a few things: Asuka! Kazuki's little crow tit! Background information: A crow tit is a general term used to describe a wide variety of small birds. Why am I telling you this? I really like Kpop. One of my favorite bands (BTS) did a song called Baepsae, also know as Crow Tit also known as Silver Spoon. It's a reference to a Korean proverb in which a stork (a bird with long legs) makes fun of a crow tit (a tiny little bird) by saying it's legs are short. This symbolizes someone born of privilege looking down on someone born of modest means. It's also recently been used to describe adults looking down on Millennials. The symbolism was too good to pass up, so Asuka become a crow tit. If you want to know what specific species, google pictures of Japanese long-tailed tit. It's the fluffiest bird you have ever seen. Also, the song is awesome. Give it a listen.

This story is going to be a project. It's taken me three days to get the little bit I have written done. I love it and I have the whole summer ahead of me to work on it, so you don't have to worry about updates for a while.

Let me know what you think and please keep in mind my handicap when it comes to the series and Japanese culture! I don't mind criticism, but I do mind rudeness.

X Cheerfully Blue