Chapter Two: Raising Hell

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Four shocked voices gaped, their shouts echoing in the monastery. Seven people were in the chapel, one was Shiro, two were RIn and Yukio and the other four were a set of very sleepy, pissed off and nervous priests in their pajamas.

"SH!" Shiro shushed angrily, a single finger over his mouth. He pointed sharply at the sleeping babies resting in a pile of blankets he'd scrounged up. He glanced at the two children warily, and found that they were still asleep, much to his relief. "Keep it down guys!"

"Father Fujimoto, what have you done?" Izumi questioned, scratching his spiky hair nervously. "Do you know how dangerous this is? Why did this even cross your mind in the first place?!"

"What if the Vatican finds out? Nagamoto asked, his eyes drawn to the two babies on the front pew, eyeing them warily. "We're going to be in so much trouble! We could be executed as heretics for hiding them!"

"Why did you decide to raise the children of Satan?" Kyodo continued, wrapping and rewrapping the bandages on his hands. "I mean, weren't you sent there to kill them in the first place? And what about what Satan did on the Blue Night? He attacked holy men all over the country and killed them! Why would you even think about raising his children after that, after all the evil and death he's caused?"

"I don't think this is a good idea…no matter how you look at it." Marata finished, pursing his already pursed lips.

Shiro sighed, understanding all their concerns. "Look, I never said it was going to be easy or safe, but these kids deserve a chance at life!" Shiro argued, softly of course because he didn't want to wake up said kids. "It's not their fault that they have the father they have or that they've lost their mother already; they've just been brought into this world like anyone else." His passionate words silenced his friends for a moment, so he continued on with his argument. "They are God's creatures just like us, and don't we teach that all God's creatures are worth loving despite their sins and circumstances? Why not them too? It's not our place to judge." Shiro dropped his head, bowing in respect for what he was asking of them. His heart was beating wildly, adrenaline and worry pulsing through his veins. "I know it's hard right now and everyone's a little nervous – I know I'm scared – but…I promised that I'd protect them, that I'd be their father. I promised her…that I raise them to be human." He looked up at his friends, determination blazing in his eyes.

"So I'm going too, and if you don't want to, you don't have to, I understand. It's a huge undertaking and I'm asking you risk your lives for complete strangers. But as hard as it will be…I have to believe that it's going to be worth it. It's their lives after all…shouldn't they live them for as long as they're able?" He bowed again, praying that they stand by him…or at least not turn him over to the Order; then the kids really would be dead.

Shiro brought his head up and leveled his gaze on the four priests who had been his closest friends for a long time. They looked back at him and then glanced at the two babies behind the Exorcist, still watching them warily. And then Rin smiled again, her little cooing echoing in the large room. Yukio shifted around restlessly and then settled down again, squishing himself into his swaddling blanket cutely. Too all outward appearances, they looked like normal, human children – harmless and adorable. And Shiro watched as one by one, his friends started to get used to their presence, even if they were still scared. He had pled his case, and all he could hope for was at least some time to get his friends on his side. He didn't dare hope for more that than, but what he got was nothing short of a miracle.

"Fine," Nagamoto sighed, brushing some of his wavy hair out of his face. "I have no idea how this is going to end, but you win. And with that, the rest of the priests nodded too. Shiro's jaw dropped. They're okay with this? They're going to help me? This was a monumental leap of faith and trust, one that Shiro knew that he didn't really deserve, but his friends were giving it to him. He nearly started crying…but he didn't, because he wanted to look manly. But as his heart swelled at the loyalty of his friends, he did get choked up. Shiro smiled softly, knowing the risks they all were taking, knowing that if anyone found out that Rin and Yukio were the children of Satan and half demon themselves, that they'd all suffer the consequences.

"Thank you." He whispered, his throat thick. The exorcist didn't even know if they heard his thanks, but it didn't matter, they could see it in his eyes.

"Father Fujimoto," Izumi smiled, "You may be a crazy old bastard, but you've got a soft heart. And I don't trust you to be you alone with two newborns and not botch it up."

"Hey!" Shiro snapped good-naturedly.

"I still think it's a bad idea," Murata sighed,.

"Of course it is," Kyodo agreed, "But…who else is going to take care of them?"

"If it makes you feel better, I still think it's a bad idea." Shiro admitted. "But I'm going through with it. Rin and Yukio need us."

"Oh geez, now I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about what we're doing." Nagamoto's face paled.

"We're accomplices now, get over it." Izumi smacked his fellow priest on the back, his trademark smile on his face.

"They're not going to burst into flames are they?" Kyodo asked, sneaking up to take a closer look at the twins.

"No." Shiro answered, taking Kurikara off of his back and pulling the sword from its cloth sheath. "Rin's the only one who inherited the power of Satan and Mesphisto sealed her demonic power in this sword. That's why she looks human." He held up the sword, the moonlight filtering through the windows lit it up softly. "We need to keep this sealed and protected at all times. Rin cannot know that she has the power of Satan. It's best if we keep it a secret. So she can be human."

"That sounds like the best thing to do. But where are we going to put it?" Izumi asked. "She can't find it either if we're going to keep their demonic nature a secret." Shiro had actually been putting some thought into this since Mephisto gave him the sealed Koma sword, but up until that point he hadn't found a solution.

"I think…I'm going to construct a secret room to store it. Probably here in the chapel." Shiro thought out loud.

"We could hide it in the altar." Murata suggested. "It's unlikely that anyone but us and a few others will ever need to inspect it closely. And this is the only room in the monastery where we can make something like a secret room."

"Well, I guess that's been taken care of!" Shiro smiled widely. "We'll start the plans tomorrow, but until then…" The Father threw the sword to Kyodo and the priest caught it with a question in his eye. "You're in charge of it."

"Why me?! This was your crazy idea, so you should take care of it!" The priest argued, shaking the sword above his head.

"I have to kids to worry about. And experts say that you should keep young children away from sharp objects." He smiled mischievously. "And I'm tired, so I'm sleeping. Be a dear and just take care of it until we lock it up." The man flapped his hand at his friend, his grin spoiled by a huge yawn. Shiro turned to pick up Yukio and Rin and found that Nagamoto and Izumi were already holding them, rocking the kids in their arms.

"They're pretty cute…for demons." Izumi smiled at Rin. "And she's got blue hair – what's not the love about blue hair?" He asked, gently stroking the girl's little tuft.

"But they're still wrinkly." Nagamoto pointed out. "Yukio's face is all scrunched up."

"Probably because you smell bad." Izumi teased, chuckling.

"The one who smells is you!" The wavy-haired priest shot back.

"Sh!" Izumi hushed as Yukio started to stir in his sleep. Nagamoto instantly shut up, praying to God that the kid wouldn't start crying this late at night. He didn't, thankfully, and just scrunched up his face even more, earning him a giggle from Izumi. Shiro smiled, happy and relieved that at least two of his friends were already smitten by the children. And it was at this moment that Kyodo brought up a very important question:

"Does anyone know anything about raising kids?" And with that, they all knew they were deep shit.

…

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Shiro sighed, rubbing his pounding temples. Yukio was still crying and wouldn't go to sleep and because of that Rin was being fussy, but not in the way Yukio was. She wanted out of the crib and was howling in an attempt to get Shiro to pick her up, but unfortunately for the baby girl, Shiro was trying to get Yukio to calm down. The boy's cold was making him very grumpy, tired, leaky and whiny all at the same time. Shiro sighed and bounced Yukio in one arm, hoping the movement would make him happy, but he was still crying. Nothing was working – he wasn't hungry, sleepy, he didn't want to play and he was just sick and the usual lullabies weren't doing anything either. If Yukio didn't stop crying soon, he would wake the rest of the priests in the monastery and they'd all be in for a long night.

"Father Fujimoto?" Shiro jumped as he heard a voice calling him. Shit, we woke him up! Izumi wandered into the twin's room, rubbing his sleepy eyes and still dressed in his pajamas. His hair was spikier than normal, sticking up in a bad case of bedhead. "Its like…one in the morning." He yawned. "Need some help?"

"Yes, please." The Father sighed and smiled at his fellow priest. The dark circles under his eyes were getting worse from trying to take care of two children at once, and he didn't know how much longer he could stay awake as it was. "Rin wants out."

"Rin always wants out." Izumi chuckled tiredly and walked over to the girl's crib. He reached in carefully and took her out. Holding the baby girl gently in his arms, Izumi rocked her gently and left the room, taking the little girl out for a quiet stroll. Shiro was so grateful that his friends were here to help him. When he'd first brought Rin and Yukio home been a little skeptical and wary of having Satan's children in the monastery, but when they both looked and behaved like normal human children, they'd softened up immediately. It was truly a blessing that he had such helpful friends, otherwise this situation wouldn't work. Yukio started fussing again, his little fists and feet pushing against his swaddling blanket. Shiro rocked him again, watching his little red face as he sniffled, getting ready to cry.

"Oh, Yukio. I'm sorry I can't make you feel better." Shiro said softly. Yukio, needing to breathe after his previous cry-fest, stopped for a moment and stared up at his father with huge green eyes. Shiro looked down and brushed some of what little hair the boy had out of his face. Yukio blinked at him, his little red face scrunching up a little. Some of his normal pale color was coming back during the break between scream sessions and the man hoped that it would last for a while. "You and your sister are harder to take care of than I thought, and you're just human babies now. Rin would be so much more trouble if she was demonic. Thank God Mephisto sealed away her powers. But that's a secret, you hear me?" Shiro, looked down at the baby boy sternly. "Don't go telling her I said that. She'll be mad I kept a secret from her. "

Yukio didn't understand a thing but he was tired now, having used up all his energy for the moment and yawned in response. He sniffed a little and let his blurry eyes fall shut. Shiro looked down at the boy, grateful that for whatever reason, he was falling asleep. He's tuckered himself out, poor thing. Shiro yawned too, feeling the weight of working all day and staying up late the past week to take care of the twins. His exhaustion was catching up to him. He's tuckered me out too, poor me. Footsteps were approaching quietly from the hallway and a spiked head peeked into the room. Hearing Yukio being quiet, Izumi carefully made his way inside.

"How's Rin?" Shiro asked as the man walked in again.

"The little stinker fell asleep on me just down the hall." The priest chuckled. "It was like she couldn't make up her mind: out or sleep? And sleep won. I walked around a few minutes to make sure she was out."

"Well, that's good. I just got Yukio to doze off." Shiro gently placed Yukio back in his crib and Izumi walked over and placed Rin in there with him. The two kids were sleeping quietly for the moment and Shiro flopped onto the bed that he hadn't moved out of the spare room. He was ready to sleep as well, still dressed in his priest robes.

"Well, I'm going back to bed." Izumi nodded to the Father.

"You do that. I'm doin' it." Shiro waved him off, too exhausted to care.

"Good night."

"'Night." His footsteps quietly walked the hallway before a door shut and the quietness of the night resumed. Shiro rolled his head over to look at the twins in the crib, their little heads and tufts of navy and brown hair popping out from their blankets. Shiro smiled tiredly at them, still awed by how cute they were when the twins weren't being difficult. These moments of quiet made it all worth it. If they were happy, he was happy. Shiro guessed that that's how being a parent worked. Your kids' dreams became your dreams, their hopes, your hopes. He had no clue what was in store for Yukio and Rin, or what they would want to do with their lives, but he knew they would do something amazing. But Shiro felt the need to apologize, his own shortcomings and mistakes glaring at him from this first week of failed parenting.

"Rin…Yukio…I'm sorry." The little bodies didn't move, too far into sleep. "I'm sorry that I'm not a very good father right now, but I promise to get better. I'm always with Yukio because he's sick and I'm sorry for that Rin, and Yukio, I'm sorry I can't make you feel better. I can't even get you guys to calm down half the time!" He chuckled softly. "Your mother would know what to do; she was good at caring for living things. You should've seen her with the Snowmen and Goblins. They were demons, the very thing she had been trained to exorcise but she hugged them! They were her friends, and they loved each other. That's how amazing your mother was. She did just see things for how they were, but how they could be. She didn't see those demons as demons, but rather as living beings and friends. Even now, I'm just beginning to understand it, especially when I look at you. You're the children of Satan, but now you're my kids. You're human too, just like me."

Shiro shut up when Rin shifted in the crib, her head turning towards him, probably recognizing his voice in her sleep. At least, that's what the obscene pile of baby books had told him. The exorcist chuckled to himself as she yawned and snuggled into her brother. "Stop being so cute. You're supposed to be a demon, little missy." But watching Rin yawn had him yawning him, the exorcist's eyes getting heavy. He took off his glasses and rolled over, resigning himself to sleep. "Let's think about the mysteries of the universe later, 'kay? I'm tired."

And with that, Shiro Fujimoto went to sleep because it was almost certain that one of them would start crying around five in the morning for food or letting him know that that they had dirty diapers.

…

Today was a really good day. Shiro was sitting outside on the monastery's lawn with Rin and Yukio on a blanket, spring warming the air around them. The four month old babies were able to sit up and grab things now and boy did they ever grab onto things! Yukio was bad enough, trying to fit everything he grabbed into his mouth no matter what it was but Rin's little grip was so strong it could probably break fingers if she squeezed hard enough. Rin may look normal in every respect, but she was as strong as a small demon! It was frightening to the priest, but she was just a child right now, what could she do? Quite a bit actually. She tipped over, reaching for a one of those baby learning books that were squishy, and smacked right into Yukio. He got knocked him over and Yukio bopped his head on the blanket covered ground. Tears instantly sprang to his eyes, his little fists squeezing up before he started to cry.

Seeing the signs of a good scream, Shiro scooped up the little boy and held him above his head, cooing at him and making swooshing sounds like he was flying. This didn't work every time, but today, it worked – because today was a good day. Yukio started smiling, laughing a little as he dangled above the exorcist's face, trying to grab the cross strings attached to his colored glasses.

"Oh, no you don't!" Shiro sang, pulling the baby away and then whooshing him into the crook of his elbow. Yukio giggled again, his toothless mouth wide. Rin was too busy rolling on the ground to pay attention, using her little arms to do mini-pushups in an attempt to sit up again, but she gave up and just wiggled around on her stomach, grabbing a rattle to shake playfully. "You're a sturdy one, aren't you Rin?" Shiro's voice drew the girl's attention. She looked up at him with her huge, blue eyes. She saw the smile on his face and smiled as well, mimicking him. "You're a cutie. Try this one?" Shiro started up a little game, rocking Yukio back and forth while making faces at Rin, both of the twins trying to copy his face as best as they could and giggling when they saw Shiro make really funny ones.

Rin got bored first and stopped looking up at her dad, going back to suck on her rattle, and getting baby slobber all over it. She cooed happily while kicking her little feet in the cloth of her white baby dress. Yukio started wriggling next, wanting down, his diapered bum sliding out of his too big shorts. Shiro picked up the boy again and set him on his feet, yanking up his pants and holding his chubby waist as the baby found some semblance of balance on his unsteady legs. Yukio was pressing into the ground with his feet, trying to stand, jump and walk all at the same time without being able to do any of it. But his immobility wasn't an issue right now, he was too busy having a conversation with Rin. And by conversation, Shiro meant incomprehensible babbling. The babies wouldn't be able to even start talking for months yet, but they seemed to have their own little language with each other, like a lot of twins developed as they grew. The huge pile of baby books also told him this. Praise the baby books.

"Alright, down you go." Shiro placed his son back on his bum so he could play and reached out to ruffle Rin's hair. She giggled at him and reached up to touch his hand, huge to her perspective and wrap her little fist around his knuckle. And then she squeezed. Hard.

"Owowow!" Shiro yelped, prying Ring's chubby fingers of his ring finger and shaking the pain of her grip out of his muscles and bones.

"I've told you to not let her get a hold of your fingers. She's a strong little tike, and I've got the bruises to prove it." Nagamoto walked out into the yard, carrying out some lunch for the Father. Today it was sandwiches.

"But her fingers are just too cute not to play with-ow!" Shiro had wiggled his fingers at Rin's smiling face and she grabbed onto his middle fingers strongly with both hands.

"I told you." He chuckled, blowing his curly hair out of his face. "Here's lunch. Kyodo's on feeding duty when you guys come in."

"Sure, great." Shiro picked up a triangle of sandwich and gobbled it down. "Thanks." Nagamoto leaned down to pet Rin and Yukio's heads before walking back inside, stopping only to teasingly ruffle Shiro's hair when the Father retorted that there wasn't a head pat for him. The sandwiches were gone in three minutes and Shiro leaned back on the ground as Yukio gave him sleepy, slow blinking eyes. "You're ready for a nap, aren't you?" Yukio didn't even babble at him in response before konking out. Rin was looking sleepy too as Shiro tipped his head up to look at his daughter. "A nap sounds nice. You guys go to sleep, m'kay?" Shiro was going to stay awake, but the warm, spring day and the peace of the afternoon was too much to resist and he ended up falling asleep with his kids. One peaceful hour later, Shiro's nap was interrupted.

"Hey, Father Fujimoto?" Murata's voice called to the man dozing on the blanket.

"Huh? Yeah?" He asked, opening his eyes blurrily and waking himself up.

"Where's Rin?" It took the exorcist a moment to process the question, but then it clicked. Shiro shot up and looked around, finding only Yukio napping on the blanket contently. Rin was gone!

"AH! Where's RIn?!" The priest jumped to his feet, startling Yukio who just fell over on his side and gave his dad a discontented look, ready to cry. But then he found a rattle and was more interested in that than in the weirdness of adults.

"That's what I just asked." The chubby priest reminded him.

"She can't have gotten around on her own, for Christ's sake! She can't even crawl yet!" Shiro jumped to his feet.

"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find her. Let's go!" Murata agreed. After depositing the other baby into the arms of Kyodo, the two men dashed around the monastery like demons themselves, checking every inch of the yard before heading around to the other side of the monastery's property to check that side. Their shoes pounded on the ground, echoing on the stones when they leapt off the grass and onto the walks. Shiro's mind was frantically trying to come up with some explanation for Rin's disappearance. None of the other priest's would've taken her with them without waking Shiro up (and they would've gotten mad at him for falling asleep in the first place and kicked him awake) so where could she have gone? She wasn't supposed to be crawling until she was about six or seven months old, and she could barely sit up, for God's sake! If anything had happened to her, he'd never forgive himself.

Fortunately for them, they found Rin around in the back yard of the chapel. Unfortunately for them, they found little Rin curled up in the arms of a mid-level goblin.

They skidded to a stop, panting from running, but trying to keep the noise to a minimum so that demon didn't get startled and hurt Rin. Somehow, the goblin had gotten into the monastery through the protective barrier that the exorcists had set up to protect Rin and to keep the girl hidden. Shiro stared at the green beast, its round body sitting heavily on the grass, its huge eyes watching the baby in its arms and the approaching priests. Is there a hole in the barrier? Or was he powerful enough to slip inside it regardless? His heart leapt into his throat, scared for Rin, and terrified at losing her if the demon got violent. This was his first encounter with a very real threat facing his daughter's demonic heritage, his normal parental worry morphing into something physically paralyzing. His stomach turned, watching the pair, hands itching to snatch Rin away from the goblin. Only his training and vast experience held him in check, making him analyze the situation and try to work out a plan.

"Shit. It got through the barrier." Shiro cursed, glaring at the demon. It was playing with Rin, probably having sensed faint traces of her demon presence that remained on her body or in her aura. Shiro knew that Mephisto's sealing was sound, so that could be the only explanation. He was going to have to add some seals of his own to keep the sword's power and Rin hidden. But before he could do that, he needed to get Rin back. They were snuggled into a shaded corner, probably because the Goblin was trying to avoid the sun which irritated it, and Rin was grabbing at the demon's red tail as the beast flicked it in front of little hands, whipping in away so that she'd giggle and reach further for it.

"What do we do?" Murata whispered. Both exorcists watched the demon warily and it watched them back. "I can't breathe fire without hurting Rin, and we don't want it attacking recklessly if it gets agitated."

"And my rifle is inside." Shiro added. Damn, this is why I need to carry pistols too! Shiro stared down the demon playing with his child, and thought carefully, watching the girl reach and grab at the goblin's long tail. The demon felt Shiro's gaze on his and bristled, a small growl escaping its throat. It wasn't going to give up its new plaything easily and swung its tail in front of the girl possessively, shielding her from the humans for a moment before pulling it back to play again when the pair of exorcists didn't move. And that's when Shiro got an idea. "Murata, I need you to attack the demon on my signal."

"But Rin's-"

"Just do what I say and she'll be fine. Don't move; I'm going to get closer." Shiro took a cautious step towards the goblin before Murata could protest, skirting to the right of the demon, moving towards its head and the baby girl. The demon's growl got louder, startling Rin, but instead of crying, she stopped moving, eyes wide as she seemed to sense the danger she was in. The goblin flicked its tail in front of the girl as Shiro moved closer, coiling her tighter in its arms. That's just what Shiro wanted. He took another step closer, now only a few feet away from the demon and his daughter. The goblin glared at him, moving his tail to cover Rin completely from the view of the exorcist.

"Now, Murata!" Shiro ordered, readying himself to leap into action. Trusting Shiro, the priest took a huge breath and shot his purifying fire towards the beast, praying that he wouldn't hurt Rin. The goblin screamed as the flames hit it, scorching its skin as it leapt back. It dropped Rin, flicking the fire off of its tail, the tail that had shielded the girl. Shiro dove into the flames, scooping up Rin before she hit the ground and cradling her to his chest as he rolled out of the way. Shiro stood in the next second and whirled on the demon, holding Rin in one arm and pointing the other at the Goblin.

"'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life!'" Shiro shouted, reciting the Fatal Verse of the demon and making the sign of the cross with his free hand (1). The demon lunged at him, screaming in pain and fury as its body was purged in spouts of black. It slashed at the exorcist with its dying breath, slicing up his arm as it reached for Rin. The demon disappeared in a cloud of black and everything in the yard was back to the way it should be.

"Father Fujimoto!" Murata ran up to his fellow priest. Shiro turned around with a huge smile on his face, showing his friend the unharmed girl in his arms. The crying, unharmed girl in his arms.

"I got her." He smiled wider.

"You're arm's bleeding." Murata pointed out.

"A scratch." Shiro shrugged. In fact, it was not a scratch. The goblin had slashed his arm open three times, ruining his black robes and the cuts were staining the fabric with blood.

"You're going to need stitches." The priest followed up.

"That's great! Maybe I'll get a nurse huge boobs who'll-"

"Stop right there, a child is present." Murata pointed to Rin, cutting off the Father before he could hear the whole spiel on the nurse with huge boobs for the millionth time.

"She can't understand me!" Shiro argued.

"I beg to differ." Shiro looked down where his friend was pointing and saw that Rin was glaring at him, her little face all scrunched up and red as if she was mad at him for talking about another woman right in front of her.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll have huge boobs when you grow up." Shiro told the girl.

"I'm sure that's exactly what she wanted to hear."

"It was." Shiro laughed as Rin started to smile (she hadn't understood a word he'd said, but she was just glad that her dad was carrying her). "You'll have huge breasts when you're older, you little troublemaker and I'm never letting you out of my sight again until you do. Then you'll be big enough to protect yourself, hopefully." Shiro sternly told Rin.

"You're the one who fell asleep." Murata scolded.

"But it's not normal for mostly immobile four-month-olds to wander off in the first place!" Shiro argued, slipping back into his childish personality.

"It still doesn't excuse you from falling asleep." Murata sighed again. "Come on. Let's go do something about that barrier."

"Sure, fine." Shiro nodded. "I'm going to check on the Koma sword first, though."

"Why?"

"I'm going to place another seal on it, just to be safe." Shiro explained, more serious now. "If a goblin can sniff out Rin, who knows what else will show up eventually. A second seal should get rid of any remaining presence of Rin's aura. Better to be safe than sorry."

"Good idea. I'll grab Nagamoto and Izumi to help with the barrier." Murata strode off to go check and barrier and reinforce it and Shiro headed back towards Yukio and the blanket they'd been playing on.

"Don't you scare me like that again, baby girl." The Exorcist whispered to his daughter as she grabbed at the beads of his glasses and then switched to his hair. As if to tell him not to hold his breath, the demon girl yanked at Shiro's hair and giggled when he yelped at the strength of her tug.

…

"Has anyone seen Rin?" Kyodo asked, checking under the pews for the tiny girl. She was only seven months old but she sure liked to crawl a lot already.

"No, it wasn't my turn to watch her." Nagatomo replied, blowing his wavy hair out of his face as he cleaned the windows.

"Why do you ask? I thought she was with Father Fujimoto." Izumi said, poking his spiky haired head into the chapel.

"Father Fujimoto is taking a nap with Yukio, the kid finally calmed down enough to sleep." Kyodo answered, stilling looking under the pews, reaching his bandaged hands under the small spaces where the child could potentially crawl into.

"If Yukio's with the Father, then who's turn was it to watch Rin?" Izumi asked, looking in horror at his fellow priests. They all looked at Maruta who was cleaning the altar.

"Don't look at me. I'm on cooking duty tonight, not babysitting." The overweight priest answered, shrugging his shoulders. The priests all gaped at one another for a few breaths and then began panicking – quietly of course because Father Fujimoto and Yukio were both sleeping.

"Rin!" They whisper-shouted, running around the monastery – trying to get the girl to answer with a laugh or a scream if necessary. "Rin! Rin!"

"Rin! Where are you?" Kyodo ran into the kitchen, checking to see if the girl was in any of the cabinets. She wasn't.

"Rin!" Maruta checked under the altar where he was cleaning. No Rin.

Nagamoto ran into the twin's bedroom, hoping that Rin had konked out in there. Nope.

"Rin!" Izumi called quietly running into the confessional booth to see if the girl was playing in there. No luck.

"What's all the fuss guys?" A new voice called, walking into the chapel. It was Father Fujimoto! They'd woken him up! "I was trying to get some sleep but all the noise down here makes that really difficult." The priest rubbed his eyes, pushing up his glasses to do so, and yawned tiredly. He'd only been asleep for like, forty minutes and that wasn't nearly long enough after having to stay up all night with a sick Yukio again.

"We…we…" Izumi started, but he couldn't finish. The four priests drooped, hanging their heads as they admitted their failure as one so no one person could take the blame. "Can't find Rin." Father Fujimoto stared at them for a moment, his sleepy brain taking a long time to process that information.

"WHAT?!" He shouted when it finally dawned on him that his daughter was missing…again.

"Shhhhh!" His fellow priests had their fingers up to their mouths, telling him to be quiet. They all shut up for a moment, waiting to hear Yukio's cries. A high pitched keening started from a back room and they all sighed as Yukio cried after being woken up…again.

"Nice going, Father." Kyodo huffed.

"Hey! You're the ones who woke me up in the first place!" Father Fujimoto yawned, completely exhausted, but he had to go calm Yukio down again. He started to trudge to the back rooms where everyone slept, steeling his ears for Yukio's wails as they got closer and louder. But as suddenly as the crying had started, it stopped and that had the priests in shock. They looked at each other for a second before dashing into Father Fujimoto's bedroom where Yukio was. They all piled inside, scrambling to see what made the child stop crying and tripped over each other, collapsing into a dog pile. Father Fujimoto's head popped out of the top of the pile and he glanced towards the bed. Lying on his bed, Yukio was sniffing, his huge eyes filled with tears, but he wasn't crying. Next to him, Rin had somehow managed to climb up onto the bed with her tiny body and was curled up next to him. She was covered in dirt and grass but sleeping peacefully and Yukio was calming down too, his sister's presence soothing to him.

"Well, I guess that answers that question." Father Fujimoto smiled, looking down at his children.

"But where was she?" Maruta asked. "She's filthy."

Later they found that the camellia blushes had been picked clean of their flowers within an infant's arm's reach and there were little pits in the dirt where Rin had been digging. They didn't leave the doors open after that.

…

The twins were nine months old when they said their first words.

It happened around the dinner table one evening, all the priests eating contently and Rin and Yukio were sitting in their highchairs, making the usual mess of their baby food on their trays. Yukio spoke first, his little voice cutting through the dinnertime conversation.

"Dada." The single word grabbed Shiro's attention, dragging him away from his food as he stared in shock at his son and then smiled widely as the rest of the priests oooed over the boy.

"Wow! Good job, Yukio!" Maruta said, clapping as Yukio laughed and said "dada" again.

"That's awesome! His first word!" Izumi high fived Nagamoto, both of them smiling as well. Kyodo just laughed, watching Yukio jump up and down in his highchair as everyone

"He said, 'dada!'" Shiro leapt out of his chair, dancing around happily. "That's my boy!"

"Shit!" Everyone froze, balking at the pouty little girl next to Yukio. Rin grumped, moodily slinking down into her chair. It sounded like she'd wanted to be the first one to speak! Everyone was silent for a moment, shocked at the girl's choice of her first word and then Izumi, Nagamoto, Kyodo and Murata all turned to the head of the table to give Shiro a look.

"She totally learned that from you." Nagamoto pointed to Shiro.

"What?!" The exorcist retorted.

"And she seemed to know to use it in context too…" Izumi chuckled under this breath. "Stub your toe recently?"

"I…well-I…" Shiro didn't have an answer that didn't make him sound guilty so he just shut up.

"That's what I thought." The spiky-haired priest nodded in affirmation.

"You got me." Shiro admitted, sighing and shrugging his shoulders.

"Shit." The word came again, but this time it was from Yukio's mouth, mimicking his older sister. The priest's stared at the kids again, jaws dropping as they both giggled and started babbling again in their baby language with the words "shit" and "dada" popping up every once in a while for good measure.

…

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

One year old Rin and Yukio both laughed as their family popped party poppers that sprayed confetti all over the table. Shiro was dressed up as Santa Claus, his huge smile shining from behind his fake, white beard. Izumi and Murata brought in a huge Christmas cake decorated for the season and set it down on the table, earning them surprised giggles and huge smiles from the toddlers. The cake was two tiers of fluffy white cake and whipped icing with strawberries (just like a normal Japanese Christmas cake but much, much cooler) and it had taken everyone's help to make it, since none of the men in the monastery had ever baked before. It was a little ragged around the edges and the frosting was uneven in spots and the cake poked through in others and the tier wasn't quite centered, but it didn't matter to the twins. They were just so excited to see something so huge, shouting out the word cake after their father told them what it was, excited to eat it. Or make a mess with it, either one.

"Happy Birthday Rin! Happy Birthday Yukio!" Shiro shouted, ruffling the boy's brown hair and the girl's blue hair, tickling them with his beard at the same time. They laughed again, the happy noise getting smiles out of all the priests, and they laughed too. It was a happy moment, one filled with light and love, more than Shiro thought would ever come back into his life after living alone for so long, fighting for the Order constantly. As he watched his good friends and his children sit around one table, the exorcist's heart was light and filled with joy. He smiled wider and before he could start tearing up with that joy in his chest, he got down to business!

"Let's eat!~" Shiro declared, nearly leaping on the table in his rush to have dinner. However, he was disappointed when he started eating sukiyaki accented with plastic confetti and spit out his first mouthful dramatically.

"Maybe we should've popped the poppers elsewhere," Nagamoto chuckled, watching Shiro pick confetti out of his food. Everyone chuckled again; laughing as Father Fujimoto made a face, finding another piece of confetti stuck on his tongue. Dinner proceeded once all the mess had been cleaned and small plastic bits were out of reach of the children. Nagamoto, Izumi, Kyodo and Murata were all chatty and playful as the twins did what babies do with food and Shiro helped pass out food and drinks, watching the festivities with his signature smirk. The party got even livelier when the cake got cut, and the twins discovered that squishing cake between their little fingers was even more fun than baby food. And they were ecstatic about it. Rin had two fistfuls of cake and frosting and was waving them around giggling with a huge smile and Yukio was pressing his hands onto his plate, flattening his cake and taking a bite every once in a while when he wasn't playing around.

We've made it through one year, let's see if we can keep going, kiddos. Shiro smiled, watching his son and daughter smear frosting all over themselves and their high chairs.

"Hey, Father Fujimoto!" Kyodo called, rousing the man from his musing. "If you don't get a piece of cake now we're going to eat it all without you!"

"Hey! I helped make that! I definitely get a piece!" Shiro leapt to his feet, knocking his chair back onto the floor as he scrambled for a piece of cake.

The party continued late into the evening, and everyone ended up with frosting on their faces once Rin and Yukio had gotten the hang of throwing cake at people and then laughing at the surprised faces of the priests when a glob of icing smacked them in the face. Shiro laughed with them, playing with their sticky fingers and telling them stories about Christmas, hoping that Yuri was watching her children turn one year old from the heavens.

…

The monastery had to be child proof by the time the twins were sixteen months old. Mostly because Yukio was too smart for his own good and could figure out how to get something open if it was locked up and/or had a baby security lock on it if given enough time. Like the baby gates on the stairs. One time, he'd figured out how to stand up using the gate to steady himself and pushed the lock away before letting it swing open. And then he and Rin had crawled up the stairs and made a mess in Shiro's room by yanking all of the books they could reach off the book shelf, tossing his Keys every which way and pulling out the drawers of his desk. And that resulted in Shiro baby proofing the baby proof gate.

But that didn't stop the little rascals from causing trouble anyway. And Yukio wouldn't just mess around by his little toddler self - he'd drag Rin into it as well. He mostly needed his sister when he was trying to open the safety knobs on turning handles because four hands are better than two. Also Rin was the expert at slipping away without being seen, so Yukio benefitted from that as well. And they were quite the trouble makers. But, in this particular instance, the younger twin was fooling around by himself with the baby gate again, since the locks had been changed and it was a new challenge. But unfortunately, Shiro caught him trying to open the gate's second (apparently not baby proof) lock.

"Yukio! Not again!" Shiro sighed, exasperated with his brilliant burglar. "Where does this kid get it from?" The Father reached down and scooped up the toddler, throwing him over his shoulder because he was getting too heavy to carry on his hip. "You know you're just getting yourself into trouble and enabling Rin, right? And we don't want Rin anymore enabled than she already is."

"Dada!" Yukio answered, giggling as he kicked his legs. "Dada I open!"

"I know you opened it, but you need to not open it."

But that didn't stop the kid at all. The next thing he ended up opening was Shiro's work files and records for the Knights of the True Cross, scattering them all across the floor before heading to the kitchen to try and get the cabinet doors open. Fortunately, Nagamoto spotted him before he got too far with that particular project.

"Hey! You stinker!" The priest grabbed the kid off the floor before he could get into the space under the sink where at the chemicals for cleaning were. "Don't do that!"

"I open!" Yukio grinned hugely, pleased that he was getting attention.

"You need to not open. That's dangerous." The priest sighed, taking the kid back into the living room.

And that's when Shiro walked into the huge paper mess and spotted Rin looking at some of the papers curiously. She didn't make the mess but she could appreciate art at its finest and was wondering if she could color on those pages. That would be fun.

"Rin!" Father Fujimoto said sternly, his eyes leveled at the girl. Startled, Rin lost her balance and fell back on her butt, seeing that her father was mad at her but not knowing why. "Did you do this?" The girl shook her head, understanding the question. And that's when Nagamoto walked in with Yukio, grabbing the head priest's attention.

"Did you do this, Yukio?" Father Fujimoto asked, leveling his eyes at the other twin now.

"I open!" Yukio was still smiling, pointing to the papers strewn about the floor. Shiro glared at the toddler for a moment before he started a mini rant.

"Fuck the baby books! They never said anything about a one year old learning how to open baby proof locks!" Shiro sighed, exasperated by Yukio's new mess. "The kid's cute, but this is ridiculous!"

"We need better locks." Nagamoto commented, tired of the situation as well.

The solution that they came up for this problem was simple: he put real locks on the cabinets to stop further break-ins. Yukio didn't like those ones because he couldn't figure out how to open padlocks.

…

The twenty month old Rin was never allowed to dress herself. Partly because she couldn't match, but mostly because in her terms, "getting dressed" meant that she yanked off every single piece of clothing on her body and ran around outside naked, flashing the passersby on the street and then getting dressed…wearing plaid and polka dots at the same time with two different colored socks on her feet. And every time Shiro tried to stop her from doing any of that, she'd throw a big fit and just make the whole mess worse, which was incredibly tiring. So, he had to be a sneaky dad. He'd led Rin pick her own clothes every day, but every night beforehand he'd reorganize her drawers so that all the matching stuff was on the bottom (because that's where Rin loved to yank her clothes from every day), that way, she could at least color coordinate better. Now, it didn't work every time, but it was better that polka dots and plaid.

And those mornings went something like this: Shiro would get up and dress, making his rounds about the monastery and checking on the wards and then head straight inside before the twins woke up. He'd get them out of bed by tickling or playing airplane or something like that and depending on how well they'd slept the night before, they'd squeal in delight or scream at him (sometimes he had one of each and sometimes they both did both). And then the routinely dressing would happen, with lots of chatter and morning babble before heading off to breakfast. And if Shiro did his nightly job correctly, Rin would at least look decent.

"Okie dokie!~ Who's ready to get ready?" The exorcist cheered, picking up Yukio and tossing him into the air a little before catching him and putting the boy down.

"Me! Me!" He smiled, the toddler was wobbly on his feet as he woke up the rest of the way.

"Me first!" Rin shouted, running for her dresser and yanking the drawers open. The twins got to work putting taking off their clothes (and Rin ran around naked for a little bit, except for her underwear) and Shiro had to hold up the shirt she'd picked (a cute thing with a cartoon cat on it) and threatened to put it on himself.

"If you're not going to wear it, then I guess I will!" Shiro teased with a devious grin on his face.

"I do it!" Rin yelled, grabbing the shirt out of Shiro's hand and hastily (and messily) putting it on, popping her head out of the shirt and smiling hugely. Shiro smiled back at her.

"Good job, Rin!" But then he started chuckling he noticed the tag was hanging out of the front. "But it's backwards. Let's fix that! Arms in!~" The little girl wiggled her arms back in the shirt and Shiro rotated it around until the cute cat face was on the front where it was supposed to be. The girl then put on her shorts (right side front this time) and yanked on her socks (different colored ones but it was good enough).

"I do better!" Yukio bragged, pulling his own clothes on with little trouble (and matching to boot).

"Nun uh!" Rin whined back, standing up and getting right in her brother's face.

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Cut it out you two. Let's go eat breakfast." Shiro scolded jokingly. "What do you want?"

"Fruits nack!" Rin cheered, throwing her tiny little fists into the air.

"Rice." Yukio answered. They both started running their little feet towards the kitchen at the same time, but Rin didn't want to lose to her brother.

"Nerd." Rin pushed her brother over as she ran towards the kitchen.

"Rin Okumura! We do not push people!" Shiro trotted after his kids, scaring his daughter to a stop when he shouted her full name. Yukio got up and kept running because he knew he wasn't in trouble."And it's not nice to call Yukio names; where did you learn that word?"

"Izumi." The little girl answered, wary that she was going to be in big trouble.

"Well, you learned 'shit' from me, so I guess that's actually an improvement." The exorcist reasoned. And it was at that moment that Rin realized that Yukio was winning.

"Shit!" She ran off in a huff, trying to get to the kitchen first and Shiro burst into laughter involuntarily, trying to shout at Rin to stop swearing.

…

Note 1: The scripture is John 3:16. This is just a verse that I chose since the goblin's Fatal Verse isn't listed and/or I couldn't find it. If you do happen to know what the demon's Fatal Verse is, please contact me and I will change it for accuracy.y./p