Incandescence Chapter 13

Netflix And Chill With The Bae

Summary: Rin has given Mephisto something to think about, or several things (schemes, plans, plots, these words are interchangeable). At least they can distract themselves with the reality show that is the past. If by reality show, you mean the tragedy of Yuri and Shiro's lives as told in parts with surround-sound and high-definition to catch all the graphic, gritty realism.

(A/N) That was heavy, guys. Let's lighten things up again (until we get to 108, that is, then it's all down-hill from there) :D

OHHH my god did you guys SEE ch 109? The dip! The hand holding! Crazy baby Rin (or maybe even Yukio? Depending on which fan theories you're following)! Possible false memories/past to reveal whether Rin actually carries Satan's flames!

…And besides giving me delicious material to work with, of absolutely no help at all when it comes to plotting out this fic :D I miiiiight be able to squeeze out one more chapter (at least enough to get me to "the helicopter explosion" scene) but after that uh, I guess I'm gonna be working on my other aoex fics for a while?

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

I would LOVE to get song recs for this fic! Like, idk if you guys have noticed but I have a couple song(s) of the chapter and will be adding more to the other chapters eventually, too. But it would be amazing to get recs from you guys. Anything from songs that fit the chapters, songs that remind you of Mephisto, Amaimon, or Rin (or any combination of the three), or even just songs that remind you of the fic/go with the over-all theme would be excellent :D

END PSA

The void fell away.

A new scene had formed around Rin, but he couldn't pay any attention to it at first, needing to lean back on the door he'd come through and just breathe.

He wondered how long the jump had been this time, if it had given Mephisto time to think about the choice he'd just made.

If he would see him in this scene.

His hand found his coat collar and had it tugged back before he could process the instinctive movement. Rin didn't question it, sticking his nose down the front and breathing the way his and Mephisto's scents mixed, blocking out the rest of the world until he stopped shaking.

"Gather round!"

Rin gasped, pulled from his thoughts by the shout coming further from his position and he finally looked to see where he'd ended up this time.

The massive old growth forest, still sunny in the mid-day heat, that greeted him had a wash of relief rushing through his body at no longer being in the cold metal labs of Section Thirteen.

He moved towards where the voice had come from, sticking to the shadows cast by the trees until he had to crouch behind a fallen log.

A large group of kids and their instructor stood in the clearing ahead of him and he startled when he recognized his mother again, looking, maybe, a bit older than when he'd last seen her, though it was hard to tell.

"For today's mission we will exorcise an ent!"

Rin listened as the instructor described the mission and the kids' role as support while the exorcists and exwires were to take down the ent.

It was kind of adorable, Rin blinked, watching how his mother interacted with her classmates. Plus, it was nice to hear that she was an excellent student and Rin had a brief flash of thought that maybe Yukio had inherited that part from her, since Rin had never been in the same realm as the words 'good' and 'student' used together when referring to him. Then he winced, mood dropping as he realized where, or who, else his scholastic abilities might have come from.

"The exorcists and exwires have arrived!"

Happy to be off that line of thought, Rin startled as his mom gasped and shouted "you" and ran off through the crowd to the newcomers. Then Rin saw why. Shiro, wearing an exwire uniform, glared down at an excitedly chattering Yuri, only to spit out a callous "don't talk to me, brat" at her and walk off with his group.

That was, Rin hid a grimace, rough to see. And his mother's confused and dejected expression hurt even more.

The battle began, the kids using their torches to weaken the massive roots while the exwires and exorcists attacked the main trunk, the quakes from the grenades and bellows from the ent sending the ground shaking beneath Rin's feet and he crouched lower to avoid getting toppled.

Then he gasped, watching Shiro steal a grenade from one of the others who had been fumbling it before throwing himself headlong up the flailing branches to chuck the grenade straight into the demon's mouth. The battle was over. Shiro had won with his dangerous maneuver.

Rin's ears echoed with the cries of the ent as it went down but he focused on how Shiro stood before the burning remains instead of thinking about it.

It was hard, watching Shiro and seeing himself. He understood what it felt like, when everyone moved as if in slow motion and the way to win the fight so obvious and he knew he could do it. But Konekomaru and his friends had shown him that he didn't need to do that, throw himself on the frontlines and take all the damage. That others deserved the same chance to prove themselves because Rin couldn't always be around to protect them.

Hearing the way the onlookers whispered amongst themselves, wondering if Shiro was even human, sent another wave of painful familiarity through Rin. Although, at least they hadn't called Shiro a demon yet.

The ent was defeated, but the greenman demons of the forest were still fleeing the fire coming from its corpse and filling the area with smoke.

Rin helped a few along that had run into his foot, faint smile pulling at his lips as he was reminded of Shiemi and her own greenman familiar.

He wanted to go home.

He forced himself to tuck that thought away, knowing he wasn't anywhere near being done with the past and he'd promised Mephisto that it would be okay. He could handle this.

Shiro walking his way, or rather, towards his mother, dragged Rin's attention from his homesickness.

"The way you fight is dangerous," Yuri blurted out, Rin agreed, but he could also see Shiro wasn't ready to hear something like that, "I get it, you're strong, but you scared everyone, including me!"

Bullets discharging into the fleeing greenman behind Yuri had Rin flinching, teeth gritting and heart jolting in shock, mirroring his mother's, as Shiro mowed down the little demons with a cool expression.

He'd seen that same expression on Yukio's face when his twin had shot him the night he burned.

Shiro was worse off than he'd guessed, but Rin didn't know why he was surprised after witnessing the childhood he'd gone through- was still going through. The disparity between the Father Fujimoto Rin had known and this person he was now had Rin wondering where the shift had come from, how he had overcome something so horrific.

Rin wondered how he'd put a past like that behind him to call Mephisto a friend, in the end. Or if that had been a lie, too.

"Exorcists exorcise demons." Rin was pulled from his thoughts again by Shiro's cold words, something in them discordant and making Rin want to immediately disagree with him, even if he didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, but- no!" Yuri spoke instead, "Exorcists save people from demons!"

That was it, Rin settled, though their argument sparked familiarity in him, and he wished he could place it.

Shiro stalking off with final hateful words towards his mother had Rin shifting in conflicted anger, wanting to defend his mother, knowing what a horrible place Shiro was coming from.

But it had become obvious...

Shiro wasn't just prickly, he was destructive.

A presence burst into being in the shadow of the trees behind a group of exorcists and Rin felt ice climb up his spine, not needing their words to tell him what it was.

"Hey, what's that blue flame?"

"It's a Rinka! That's odd."

Satan had appeared again. Rin swallowed around a dry throat, edging away from the clearing back towards the rusted locker he'd arrived through. It was time to go, he'd seen enough of this scene.

He closed the door behind him to the sounds of fire crackling through the forest, wondering where he'd end up next.

A lengthy series of scenes followed, Rin finding his path taking him along the frantic pace of Shiro's exwire career. A swath of violence enacted on both demons and humans, Shiro somehow not realizing he was holding himself back by being confrontational towards his fellow exwires, getting in fights with them over the smallest of infractions.

It was a hard scene to watch as Shiro's guardian was taken down in a fight just shy of Shiro's upcoming graduation to finally attaining exorcist status. The familiar glasses Shiro- whose eyesight had worsened over the years, Rin was guessing because of some side-effect of all the experimentation he was undergoing- took off the man's dead body made the nostalgia he felt at seeing them curdle in his gut, now knowing their origin.

Rin entered the next scene, heart heavy with something almost worse than the life he'd just witnessed.

He still hadn't seen Mephisto in all the previous scenes. His scent on the tie around Rin's tail had become faint and he'd had to strain to pick it up over his own.

His heart squeezed in his chest. The sight of the Academy greeted him as Rin leant back against the walls when he was once again confronted with the tall metal gate into Section Thirteen, juxtaposed with the warm golden halls of the cram school he knew.

He stayed against a cool marble pillar, needing to steady himself as he took another shuddering inhale to the tie, trying to scent Mephisto out and realizing the scent was only in his head.

Exorcists and other personal moved around his still form. He'd never felt so alone.

Shiro's now familiar scent forced Rin's attention up from the tie and Rin watched as he was freed from the horror of those metal halls for good, the researcher's saying their farewells- how they were glad Section Thirteen was releasing him, to Shiro's snappish response.

Rin felt vindicated that Shiro hadn't let them get away with sounding like they had any right to say those things to him, not after what they'd put him through, even if they'd had no apparent choice.

The scene fell away as he left for the next one, once again opening the void into the Academy to see Shiro dressed in his full exorcist uniform.

Mephisto's tie seemed to burn where it lay over his heart. Rin didn't bother checking, knowing the disappointment of not being able to smell him anymore would only hurt.

Shiro walked away and Rin made to follow when steps down the hall behind him, somehow loud amongst the other bustling sounds of everyone else in the massive chamber, stopped him in his place.

Breaths stuttered in his lungs, his nose flared as he picked up the scent he'd been searching out since he'd left it behind in that office.

"It will likely be some time before you get inducted as an exorcist, Rin, this should be a fun little peek into the proceedings."

Rin wrenched his head around, the force probably enough to cause whiplash in a normal human's body but that didn't even register over the voice that reached his ears through his thundering heartbeat and rushing pulse.

The claim snapped back into place between them as Rin stumbled forward to grab Mephisto's hand where it had been raised as if to place it on his shoulder.

He shuddered there in the hallway, fingers clenched around Mephisto's and head bowed so Rin could lose himself in the thrum of energy he hadn't realized had become disconnected in the time he'd been absent.

Mephisto stepped closer, gentling his white-knuckled grip with his other hand and stroking his clawed thumb over the creaking tendons until Rin was able to calm his shivering breaths.

"You'll miss the ceremony if you stay here, Rin."

Rin's voice rasped out in a wordless croak from disuse when he tried to respond to the quiet reminder. He realized he hadn't spoken since he'd last seen Mephisto, either.

How long had it been? The scenes had all begun to blur together from that moment to this one.

"It doesn't smell like you anymore," Rin said, then coughed to clear his throat, raising his head to finally take in Mephisto and feeling his grip tighten again without his say when he did.

Green eyes stared down at him from a careful expression, anything more held back behind a slight frown, just a tug of Mephisto's lips downward, and Rin couldn't place what he was thinking at all.

He- he needed-

-He needed skin on skin contact!

Rin had his glove shucked, hand yanked from Mephisto's to return in the next instance while he sucked in a gulping breath, instincts settled now that he'd gotten what they'd been screaming for.

The sounds of the hallway filtered back through his senses and Rin flushed, realizing there were a lot of people who could notice at any time that he was holding hands with the director of the Academy.

He tugged his hand away and back into his glove, shoulders hunching as he winced and looked up at Mephisto.

"Sorry, I panicked," Rin said, voice a mumble in his embarrassment. After-all, it had been much longer for Mephisto and he hadn't reacted like that.

Mephisto blinked, his gaze flicking down to where his own hand was held out like it was still in Rin's.

A wry smile overtook his face, then, claws flexing before he dropped his hand to his side and walked ahead of Rin, leading the way to where Shiro had gone.

"I'd forgotten you've never experienced those particular instincts before, you handled that much better than I would have expected," Mephisto said from over his shoulder.

Rin had to contain a shudder at the small distance widening between them and hurried to catch up before he did something drastic like hug Mephisto in the middle of the hall.

"So uh, what were you saying about a ceremony, I wasn't really paying attention," Rin asked, anything to get Mephisto talking again so he could hear his voice. Not that his question wasn't honest, because he really hadn't heard the words coming from Mephisto's mouth.

He was listening now.

They entered a wide room, filled to the brim with exorcists all facing the stage where a towering statue of a knight atop a horse overlooked the audience and Rin finally tore his unblinking gaze from Mephisto's back to take the rest of the details in.

Shiro kneeled, head bowed, on an ornate padded foot-rest on the last step in front of one of the Grigori and Rin felt his breath catch as they spoke, their words carrying a ceremonial overture, "top of his class, Senior Exorcist at the Japan Branch of the Knights of the True Cross, Shiro Fujimoto!"

Something clicked in Rin's head as they continued, "betwixt light and dark and with an intrepid spirit, practice self-restraint, serve humanity, and be faithful to others."

"In the name of the Grigori and the paladins throughout history, I dub thee Knight."

Rin peeked his head further over Mephisto's shoulder where he was stood behind him, grin breaking out onto his face as he realized what was going on, "it's an exorcist induction ceremony? So cool!"

His move had brought him an inch away from Mephisto, the heat from his body sending a jolt straight through Rin's heart before he forced himself back with a lurch while his pulse pounded at the almost-contact.

Mephisto turned, clapping with the rest of the crowd for Shiro, a smile on his face as he must have realized what Rin had almost done, or maybe he was just smiling at Rin's excitement over something that was business as usual for him.

"Once a year at the Vatican, those who pass the certification exam are instated as exorcists," Rin listened as Mephisto explained how the ranks were received based on the class of demon a person could exorcise on their own during the exam, ears twitching to hang onto the voice over the noise.

"The world's exorcists assemble to size up their new peers, you're sure to see some faces you know."

Rin made himself to scan the crowd, gasping as he recognized a younger Todo amongst who must be his family and Rin had to suppress a growl at the traitor, wondering if he'd already begun working for Lucifer yet.

But, again, he reminded himself there was nothing he could do, going back to survey the rest of the people and spotting a few of the top exorcists, that giant of a man he'd seen carting off Lightning and the short old woman, scowl on her stern face that maybe had a few less wrinkles than before. And Dr. Eminescue.

He suppressed another growl and turned his gaze to the stage before startling, taken aback by the tall man standing with a serious expression on his face and a massive long-sword held between his crossed hands so the point rested against the floor.

"Something about that guy," Rin muttered out to himself only to get pulled from his musings by Mephisto's voice again, "that is Abel Franken, the current paladin."

"He reminds me of someone," Rin said, analyzing the dark hair, long nose, and shaped beard over a time-worn face.

"Oh, I wonder who?" Mephisto's light response had Rin shivering, stuffing his hands in his pockets to hide clenched fists even as he kept trying to think about why the paladin seemed familiar.

Anything to keep his attention from going back to Mephisto.

"Junior exorcist second class, Yuri Egin." The words from the Grigori stopped Rin from considering the paladin further and he felt a joy rise in his chest, pride, for his mother.

The ceremony passed after that, Rin not recognizing most of the other exorcists inducted. He smiled to see the way Yuri was greeted and congratulated by her friends afterwards in the crowd, Mephisto having led him to where they were.

It was sweet. Rin felt mushy inside as he saw the girl, Jenny, that had been so fiery and snappy in the forest scene with his mother now clearly one of her best friends along with the guy, Rick, that kinda reminded Rin of Godaiin.

The three of them chattered excitedly until Yuri spotted someone in the crowd, gasping and calling out, "Shiro! Congratulations!"

And, Rin winced, got a middle finger stuck up for her efforts from Shiro, who was still an ass.

"Come, Rin, you've seen enough of this," Mephisto tapped a finger to his arm and Rin flinched at the contact, dulled through his sleeve, but nodded and followed Mephisto out of the mass of people to the nearest exit.

Rin jerked his gaze to the door, then back at Mephisto, realizing what he must have earlier.

There were too many people. They couldn't do anything here.

Rin suppressed the whine that wanted to escape, biting his lip and feeling his heart thud against his ribcage.

Okay, okay, Rin repeated inwardly, Mephisto probably had some important meeting as the director after the ceremony and couldn't put it off. He could do this, he just had to go to the next scene and get Mephisto alone.

He forced his elongated fangs back and smiled up at Mephisto, reaching to use his key, "I'll see you later, bye, Mephisto."

"Goodbye, Rin." The soft answer followed Rin into the void and he allowed the hiss he'd been holding in, out, feeling a wild desperation build again now that he didn't even have Mephisto's scent nearby anymore.

His hand was gripped over his tail and heart until Rin realized he'd made the subconscious move and yanked it away like it burned.

Night greeted Rin when he opened the door to the next scene, and he blinked as he adjusted.

A 'poof' reached his ears, but Rin didn't have a chance to take advantage of the lack of people nearby to get at Mephisto before he was teleported to a rundown apartment complex, finding himself stood next to a small window to look into one of the dwellings.

Shiro laid on his bed inside and Rin caught him smiling to himself, staring at an ID and his room as if he couldn't believe either existed. Rin was brought back to what Shiro had shouted at Mephisto as a child- his reason for wanting to be an exorcist. To have a room to himself and freedom.

But Shiro didn't stay there for long, already rolling to his feet and pulling his uniform on as he headed out the door.

"Come, Rin, best not lose track of him, this city is a maze," Mephisto said, hand coming to grasp at the crook of Rin's elbow. The simple touch nearly sent Rin to his knees, weak at the claim pulsing in his senses.

He was barely aware of Mephisto guiding him along, mind lost in a fog and body numbed- unable to even kiss him like he wanted to as they trailed after Shiro.

A bar greeted Rin, the scent of cigarettes from the group of exorcists Shiro pawned one off of almost enough to get his attention from the warmth of Mephisto's hand on his arm.

It must have been his first cigarette, Rin managed to wonder at through the cloud of smoke mirroring the literal one rising around Shiro as he coughed when he took a drag.

The cigarette didn't distract Shiro for long, though, and Rin saw where his true destination was almost before he started over to the bar.

Dark hair, blue eyes, and a seductive smile greeted the impish one on Shiro's face as he sidled up to the curvaceous woman working at her drink.

It took no time at all for Shiro to seduce her away from the drink and back to his apartment.

"He's enjoying his newfound freedom," Mephisto cooed from behind Rin where they were stood on the balcony, wide smile exposing fangs as sharp as his interest in the things Shiro was getting up to with his first conquest.

Rin. Couldn't. Take it. Anymore.

He spun around, shoving Mephisto into the wall beside the glass sliding doors, claws almost tearing through the gloves over them as he got his hands on Mephisto's shoulders and his mouth on his throat.

Mephisto's fluttering pulse beneath his tongue and his scent filling his nose drew a ragged groan from Rin and he pressed further into him, trembling there with his eyes clenched closed.

"Ah," Mephisto sighed once the shock had worn off, hand coming up to press at Rin's spine in a comforting weight as he spoke in a low voice, "not handling well at all, I see."

Rin tried to respond but it was just a muffled jumble of words where he couldn't seem to let Mephisto's neck go and he settled for a small shake of his head.

"I suspect it will be even worse when you see Amaimon again."

Amaimon.

Rin sobbed at the thought of seeing the earth king, fangs sinking down before he could stop himself, though he managed not to break skin as Mephisto grunted at the bite constricting his airway.

The hand at his spine rose to his head and scratched through the strands of hair there until Rin could control his fangs, drawing them in so just the normal ones remained.

That got a chuckle from Mephisto, his finger tapping to the back of Rin's head, "I should have waited to mention him when you weren't so attached to my throat, hm?"

Uh yeah, Rin let out a huff of breath through his nose, releasing Mephisto from his hold only so he could drop his head to the crook of his neck and inhale the scent there, nuzzling further into it and feeling his eyes droop.

"These instincts are dumb," Rin muttered eventually, slumped in Mephisto's arms and not in the mood to move any time soon, "I don't like feeling clingy."

He felt a smile stretch against his head where Mephisto had been resting and Rin wondered if he was also scenting him out, if he'd been affected like Rin had.

"Not clingy, Rin, possessive," he said, laugh in his voice, "or am I not yours?"

Mine.

"Mine," Rin growled, echoing the word pushing up from his subconscious in a startling burst as his hips rolled into where they met Mephisto's, a new set of instincts boiling to the surface.

"Right here, Rin? Your exhibitionist tendencies rise again, I see," Mephisto teased, though he was quick to respond with an answering twist of his hips against Rin's, pushing them closer with a hand at the base of his tail.

"Okay, first of all, I'm not an exhibitionist, Amaimon is just a bastard," Rin hissed, pulling his head away to glare up at where Mephisto smirked, though just saying Amaimon's name sent another fissure through him that had him jolting in an uncontrolled quake.

"And what's second of all, Rin?" Came the cheeky response.

Rin scowled, hands clawing into Mephisto's suit, "second of all, if I don't get skin on skin contact with you right now I'm going to combust and that will definitely ruin both our nights."

"Not to mention poor Shiro's," Mephisto laughed, even as Rin dug his hands under the bottom of his shirt until his questing fingers found skin and rubbed there, drawing a shiver from both of them and a hitched breath- loud, despite the pulse rushing in Rin's ears, from Mephisto.

That was the spark his instincts needed to overwhelm him after the long torture of looking but not touching he'd gone through.

A burning haze took over in Rin's mind. His fangs dropped and he could feel his eyes warping, though the awareness of those things was second-string to getting through all the unnecessary buttons of Mephisto's suit.

Even just pulling his hands away from under the shirt to get it off of Mephisto was almost too much for Rin's fevered instincts screaming for physical contact nownownow.

"You're going to tear something if you keep that up." The words slid along his senses, only the cadence of their smooth tone reaching Rin and sending a growl rumbling from his chest in wordless frustration as he fumbled another button.

Through it all, he'd shoved a leg between Mephisto's, grinding down onto him and unable to stop enough to coordinate getting rid of the infuriating clothes in the way, giving up and panting against Mephisto's chest with a thin whine.

"Mmm," that voice rolled over his ears again as the hand at his hip dipped under his shirt to caress his tail while Rin gasped silent whimpers into the folds of fabric under his cheek, "Amaimon is in for quite the treat when you get back to him. I'm almost jealous."

Amaimon.

The name rang like a single clear bell in his head and a snarl erupted from his throat, body jerking as he renewed his efforts to get at Mephisto.

This time he just raked his claws, having torn through the gloves without his notice, over the damned clothes between him and what he wanted.

They came away bloody and Mephisto hissed at the pain, but Rin was already lapping at the healing scratches, moaning as he brought more of the heady liquid onto his tongue and parting the tatters of the suit to press closer.

"Tch, I suppose I'm just lucky you didn't burn them off," Rin ignored the voice to kneel, bringing his hands around the slim waist and chewing at the delicate skin above a loop of coiled tail.

He nosed at the now quivering belly, inhaling a long breath as his eyelids shuttered and he dug claws into where they'd captured the hips under them, kneading there while he processed his claim on the body before him.

Black claws tipped his chin back and Rin gazed through glassy vision up into the shadowed face over his, only able to see the luminous green eyes staring back, all other features fading as he clenched his fangs around a desperate sound.

"Let me help you with that, Rin."

A snap and his uniform opened, gloves vanished and pants unzipped- his length now freed to the still night air.

Rin shot up in a long slide of overheated skin against skin, locking his fangs around the jugular of his claim as he thrust to meet the hardened length revealed in the same snap.

The growl that came out vibrated through the throat he laved his tongue to while he brought his hands to shove down the back of now loosened pants to knead there instead.

He wanted more.

He had those pants pushed down and dragged off as soon as the thought crossed his mind.

It was only so he could haul his claim up to slam him back into the wall, eliciting a gasping breath and claws gripped to his shoulders in shock.

But long legs wrapped around him and hands drew him close again as he slid his length beneath canting hips.

"You little demon, I give you an inch- ah! And you take a mile."

The delicious sounds coming from his claim only spurred him on and he pushed forward, seeking friction and loosing another growl when he couldn't get it.

"I'll- hah, have to help you with that too, I suppose."

A hand on his length had him groaning into the collarbone he'd been about to bite, but the matching groan and sudden tight heat enveloping him had his fangs sinking in anyway until his claim had seated himself fully.

His hips stuttered in an instinctive thrust, claws digging into the muscles of the back he'd clamped them to and fangs unlatching so he could moan as he started fucking up into the exquisite tightness without further hesitation.

Mine Mine Mine Mine

"Mine," he growled into the throat now under his fangs, surrounding himself with the scent there until it was the only thing he could smell and letting a pleased purr rumble through him when it made that neck arch back, revealing more of it to his gaze.

The salt of the skin under his tongue where he trailed it as he led his fangs over a rushing pulse had him slamming harder to those hips, lips stretching into a snarling grin at the cut-off shout from his claim.

Why was he keeping quiet? He wanted to hear him scream.

Tail. That would get him to let everyone know who he belonged to.

It was still wound up, shivering at each impact of his body into the wall behind him. He would fix that.

His own tail shot out from the annoying obstruction draped over it and he would have burnt it off of him if he hadn't been so focused on where he'd started yanking that tail from his claim's waist to twine the two of them together.

"Yes," his breath hissed out of him at the heaving chest, panting mouth, and glazed eyes the twists along the trapped length of tail he dragged his against caused.

Now, where were his screams.

He reached down to run a tight grip over his claim's length. He would try pain next, if this didn't work, he decided.

But instead of releasing those screams he wanted, his efforts got him the sight of his claim biting down on his lips to stifle them, blood seeping from the punctures.

His claim was being stubborn.

Pain it was, then.

Fangs extended in his mouth to their full length and he grinned around them when it made his claim's eyes widen, letting go of where he'd bitten his lip with a warning sound on his tongue.

It was too late for that, he should have given him what he wanted sooner.

He sunk his fangs into the meat of his claim's shoulder, the rush of hot blood against his lips and down his chin making him come, thrusting hard into the body over his and snarling his pleasure into the ragged tears.

"Ahh!"

There was his scream.

Another rush of warmth hit him when his claim released against his body, shuddering and moaning until he fell limp into the wall at his back.

"Hey, I think there's something out there."

A voice came from inside the building.

"Probably just the damn alley cats fighting."

Hmm, he wasn't sure he wanted anyone to actually see his claim, should he kill the trespassers?

"Rin- hah, dear, now would be a wonderful time to come back to yourself."

His claim was mouthy.

He let go of the bite he'd been worrying at, allowing the punctures to start closing so he could bend down and lick a stripe of release away from where it had splattered his claim's chest.

"Rin-" he cut off those words and shoved his tongue into his claim's mouth, letting him taste himself as a pleased purr rumbled from his chest.

There, now he was satisfied.

"No, really, I think there's something there, can you check?"

Who?

"Fine, fine, I'm checking."

Shiro?

Rin gasped, drawing back and unwinding his tongue from Mephisto's with a wet slide, trailing release and saliva between them as steps from further in the apartment neared their position.

Panic had him pulling out of Mephisto, face flushing at the hiss it got from his hurried movements.

"Mephisto!" Rin whispered frantically, staring into the slow smile curling down at him as Mephisto regained his composure.

"What was that about consequences and reaping them?"

"Oh my god! You could have brought us back to your damn room whenever you wanted, dammit," Rin growled when that only made the smile widen.

His heart pounded when it still looked like he wasn't going to do anything about the encroaching Shiro.

The sliding door unlatched.

"Mephisto!"

A snap, and they were on a nearby building overlooking the place they'd just been.

"Hey, whoever the hell's out here, you're interrupting," Shiro said, griping as he stuck his head outside to peer into the darkness.

"Was there someone there?" The woman called.

Rin knew the second Shiro saw the evidence of their deeds.

"Ugh, no, it was definitely just some damn cats fighting, there's a bit of blood- probably got a rat or something. Now, where were we?"

Rin slumped down onto the roof, relieved groan leaving his mouth as he dropped his head back and closed his eyes, still fighting a blush at the almost discovery.

Only to yelp as he found himself straddled and a hand tugging his hair so Mephisto could nip at his jaw.

"Well, that was a marvelous display you put on for me, Rin," he said, delight in his voice.

Rin glared, grabbing at Mephisto's wrists until he saw the state the both of them were in and groaned again, "I can't believe I just did that, I tore your clothes! Why didn't you stop me?"

Mephisto slid his gaze down to where Rin's uniform was parted around his body, traces of their activities drying in the night air but still teasing them with the mingled scents.

"I have been known to do worse to the things that are mine, on such occasions."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Rin grumbled, "I'll be able to control this stuff later, right? You can, I mean, I didn't see you jumping me in the hallway or the other times I was gone for a while and saw you again."

"Oh, Rin," Mephisto leered at him instead of answering the question, like an ass. "Every moment I'm not 'jumping you' is a moment wasted."

Unbelievable. Unrepentant. And other 'Un' words Rin couldn't be bothered to think about right at that moment as he dropped his head into his hands and sighed, already moving to put it behind him for the sake of his own mental health.

"I don't think I'll be warning Amaimon about what's coming for him."

"Amai-" Rin bit off a hiss around the fangs extended back in his mouth and glowered up at Mephisto because he definitely knew what he was doing mentioning him like that.

"Alright, that's it, can you please clean me up so I can get to the next scene?" Rin said, scowling at the impish smile his reaction got.

"In such a rush to leave after you ruined me so thoroughly, Rin? I'm beginning to feel used," Mephisto said with pretend hurt as he drew a claw over the blood staining his shoulder and torn white suit, pout on his face that twitched as he fought against another smile.

Rin burned with both shame and the flames coiling under his skin, a strangled sound fighting passed his lips at the imagery those words conjured in his head. Ruined was right.

Mephisto grabbing at the end of his tail prompted another yelp from Rin, his hands falling away as he blinked, startled at seeing the tangled end of it held in front of his nose.

"From that stunt with this tail of yours, I'd say you won't have a problem smelling me on my tie anymore- at least for a while." Mephisto wagged the captured tail until Rin sneezed at the tickling strands.

He couldn't help taking a breath, though, eyes half-mast as he realized Mephisto was telling the truth about the tie smelling like them again. A sigh escaped him, relief soothing the irritation he'd been feeling as he pressed his nose into the rumpled tie and the fingers wrapped around it, letting his eyes close the rest of the way.

Mephisto laid a kiss to the top of his head before standing, hand at Rin's elbow to bring him along.

By the time Rin opened his eyes, a snap had come and they were cleaned and dressed, though a not-so-small part of him was disappointed to see Mephisto clothed again.

His tail was under his uniform and Rin tapped a newly gloved finger to it, reassuring himself that everything was back in order before tilting his head to look at Mephisto.

"I," Rin hesitated, "I will be able to control this eventually, right?"

That got a wry smile sent down at him, Mephisto crossing his arms as he answered, "yes, Rin, as I said, for your first time with those particular instincts, you handled yourself quite well."

"Well, huh," Rin said, grumbling as he shook his head, "I was about to murder Shiro and that woman because they might have seen you and I didn't like that- and I wanted your screams and I didn't really care how I got them."

Mephisto grinned, eyes crinkling at the horrifying statement and moving to frame Rin's face in his palms, "you say the most romantic things to me, Rin."

Yeah, he should have guessed those revelations would get that reaction from the demon.

"You can imagine, then, what my and Amaimon's experiences were in the beginning, if I say yours was tame by comparison, yes?" Mephisto brushed his thumbs over Rin's cheekbones, letting his words and their implications sink in.

"Yeah," Rin managed, eyes glazing as he tried to imagine the scenes. That was- that was something to consider later.

Amaimon.

"Hm, off you go, then." Rin shook out of his daze, automatically accepting the kiss dropped to his lips and following as Mephisto guided him to the nearby rooftop door.

It was still hard to leave Mephisto's side, and if his good-bye kiss went on a moment longer and was a little deeper than he'd planned, well, Mephisto wasn't complaining so Rin didn't let it worry him much.

He entered the void, instincts settled, for now, and hoped he wouldn't have to wait so long to see Mephisto again.

The door opened to the sound of a slap and Rin blinked as he saw a girl stalk down the open-air walkway, turning to see Shiro rubbing a hand to his red face.

Ah, he hadn't improved much in the kindness department, Rin could see, wincing as he noticed his mother walking by with Rick and eyeing Shiro down.

"Shouldn't you go after her? She must really like you," his mother asked, despite the rude way Shiro had snapped at her about minding her own business.

"What's it to you? Butt out!" Yep, Rin has seen that coming.

A new girl approached Shiro from the opposite direction that other girl had gone, asking about drinks later, which Shiro accepted without a second's hesitation.

Yuri's comment to Rick about Shiro seeming lonely had Rin silently agreeing, wondering when the break would come. Shiro couldn't keep going like he was without something snapping.

A hand at his elbow and a physical snap had Rin gasping, pulled into a dip with Mephisto over him, swallowing his surprised yelp in a kiss before he could think.

"Is- is there something else I'm supposed to see in this one?" Rin panted when he was finally allowed up.

Mephisto smiled down at him, "nope! Off you go again, Rin."

Rin huffed an amused breath out, shaking his head to hide the pleased blush trying to stain his cheeks, and stepped into the next scene.

And the blush was back full force as he realized he was back on Shiro's balcony, sliding door shutting behind him to reveal the way his surrogate father was going at it with the newest girl.

He snapped a glower at the grinning demon who'd appeared to stand at his back, already rubbing gloved hands at Rin's hips as he looked without an ounce of shame into the apartment.

"Was there a point at all to this scene, dammit?" Rin hissed, turning in the arms around him and yanking at the hair framing Mephisto's face to get his attention.

"We should keep an eye on him," Mephisto said, smile stretching to inhuman proportions in devilish glee.

"Ugh!" Rin tugged the ridiculous bastard down into a snarling kiss before shoving him away and stalking into the next scene, hoping this one had a purpose.

And was blasted by a wave of heated air, dry wind whipping sand into his eyes as he hunched to shield them from the blinding light until a hand at his spine directed him away to the side of a stone wall.

Some barrier between his eyes and whatever was shaking the ground he stood on, Rin was able to look up, struck silent by the massive stone demon attacking the swarm of exorcists trying to calm it down.

"This is a mission that took place in Mexico twenty-nine years ago," came Mephisto's voice over the wind and shouts.

Rin watched as a pacification ceremony failed, exorcists scattering before they were crushed under the stone beast.

He was teleported down to the basecamp they'd set up, finding Shiro, the old woman and the giant man, as well as a bunch of exorcists Rin didn't recognize, and Yuri.

They relayed the failed ceremony, each tossing out other options to try. Shiro's plan to just blow it to bits was a complete non-surprise to Rin, despite hearing the earlier discussion that the animated stone was a sacred artifact to the Mexican government who'd employed the Order to help exorcise it and was not to be damaged.

And then his mother came up with the suggestion that it could be a golem and asked to be allowed to try pacifying it her way.

Shiro's derisive comment had Rin sighing internally at the clear antagonism, glad when the old woman nodded, allowing her despite the danger.

They watched, ready to jump in if she couldn't stop the golem and Rin, once again, despite knowing she survived the encounter, still felt fear pinch at his nerves.

The golem bore down on Yuri, earth shaking around each lumbering step as she stood strong and steady against the impacts.

Rin gripped into Mephisto's sleeve as it reached her, then sighed as it paused its pace to trot the rest of the way, leaning down and sniffing her with the carved nose of its stone face.

At no sign of violence from her, the golem shrieked, raising its arms as if to crush her. Still, Yuri remained in place. The arms landed on either side of her body, thuds sounding in the area but not moving her from her position.

And the golem shrunk until it was shorter than Yuri, resting after its rampage as she tore off the seal that had controlled it, improperly completed and the reason it had begun its rampage in the first place.

"Well done, Yuri Egin, you're ambitious," the giant man said- and Rin was really going to have to learn his name at some point because he seemed like he was going to be relevant whether he was in the past or present. Now, if only someone would say his name because Rin didn't want to give Mephisto even more fuel to tease him with by asking him for it.

Rin watched as his mother turned down the potential promotion they offered to put in a good word for after seeing her skill, saying she was happy where she was because she liked demons and didn't want to fight them.

That statement from her made something warm curl in Rin's gut that he didn't try to analyze, shoving it down to hear Shiro snap out another derisive comment.

"You're unreliable and a hypocrite, don't get cocky!"

Rin winced, Shiro was… not making it easy to like him.

"I've made my decision, do you disagree?" The old woman asked, once again, another key player Rin really had to learn the name of.

"She just got lucky," Shiro scoffed, walking off.

It all devolved from there.

Suddenly, Rick was running up to them to offer Shiro a water only to get it slammed in his face, leaving him with a bloody nose and the words 'low ranking scum' hurled his way.

And Yuri was on him, slapping Shiro and shouting, calling him weakling before she had to be pulled off, still yelling until one line froze Rin in place, stunning Shiro too.

"You treat the whole world like your enemy! If you keep acting like this, you really will end up alone!"

The words his Shiro from the future had told him that long-ago day Rin had attacked his classmate came back to him in a painful memory. He'd been right, and Rin had taken his words to heart to find real friends.

It was… something to see where those words had come from.

But that Shiro was a long way off from this one.

Shiro lashed out.

His hand struck blue flame.

The onlookers gasped as he was rebuffed, Yuri's whispered 'Rinka' reaching Rin's ears over the commotion that followed.

Rick dragged Yuri away by the scruff of her uniform while she pouted.

Shiro was thrown over the giant man's shoulder and scolded, "this merits punishment, for both of them."

"Hey, Osceola, put me down!" Well, Rin sighed as Shiro was carted off, at least he had a name for one of the exorcists now. The struggle would be remembering it, as usual.

Mephisto leaned down on Rin from behind, a heavy weight meant to be deliberately obnoxious, Rin guessed, as he grunted and poked his side until he let up the pressure.

"Lemme guess, we're done here?" Rin said, hand resting at the point of Mephisto's elbow where it bent over his shoulder to allow him to tease the wisps of hair at the back of Rin's neck, unaffected by the desert heat.

Mephisto prodded his nose into his neck and Rin was grateful no one looked over to see the director, who Rin wasn't even sure was supposed to be in the area for the mission, nuzzling into some random exorcist.

"Yes, it's that time again, Rin," he murmured against him, sending a shiver down his spine and making his ears twitch.

"Okay," Rin said, rubbing his fingers over the arm he'd lain them to.

He left the embrace with a last squeeze of his hand to Mephisto's, smiling back at him before heading to a door.

Mephisto was acting weird. Oddly affectionate and, initially, Rin had put it to being for the same reason he'd been so clingy, but by Mephisto's own words he had long ago learned how to ignore or control the instincts that being away from someone carrying his claim caused.

So, there was another reason, or reasons, that Rin suspected he had no hope of understanding but already knew was going to have consequences he may or may not like. It hurt to think the name, but Rin wished Amaimon was there to try to parse what might be up with Mephisto, or at least commiserate with him about the behavior.

He really missed Amaimon.

Rin stepped out into the next scene, covering his shuttered breath with action as he found himself outside a massive greenhouse on the outskirts of the Academy. He stared up at the towering glass walls until movement brought his attention back down to see Shiro surveying the same thing.

Although by the look on his face he didn't appreciate it as much as Rin did. Maybe it was his association with Shiemi and Amaimon that had Rin comforted by growing green things and the smell of earth.

Of course, Shiro didn't have either of those associations, Rin winced, following him down stone steps to where Yuri crouched over some tiny golems crowding around her feet.

It was kinda cute how they stuttered through their stilted apologies, Shiro ending it with a 'don't mention it.'

Arms wrapped around his chest and Rin leant back into Mephisto as he dropped his chin on his head when he joined him in the greenhouse.

"Hm," Mephisto began, vibrations going through Rin from the soft accompanying rumble in his chest, "there's nothing so entertaining to me than watching two humans bump around each other, fumbling in the dark."

Rin blinked at that non-sequitur, sensing Mephisto was revealing something important but unable to figure out what that meant in the scheme of things.

He settled for silence, placing his hands over Mephisto's where they hugged at his stomach.

The conversation Yuri and Shiro were having drew Rin back from contemplating Mephisto.

They'd moved on to talking about the little golem familiars Yuri loved so much, Shiro warning her that they weren't pets, that the slightest weakness would have them turning on their masters.

"The weak can't survive, people use weaklings like tools and then kill them," Shiro said, reminding Rin what Yuri had screamed at him in the last scene and realizing Shiro was giving a more in-depth apology than he'd expected.

Or at least an explanation.

Rin winced as Shiro recalled his childhood, or lack-thereof, "the first thing I remember, we were drugged and in confinement, my brothers and sisters going mad one by one until they died."

"We didn't have parents to protect us," he shot a look at Yuri out of the corner of his eyes, "I survived because I was strong."

"So, I can't stand it when someone calls me weak! Don't ever call me that again!" Shiro burst out to Yuri's saddened expression, face twisting in a manic smile when he saw it, "what's that look for?"

Yuri didn't let him phase her, and Rin had a flash to his own recent confrontation with Mephisto, heart skipping a beat at the similarities but calming himself before Mephisto sensed something wrong.

"You've had a horrible time," Yuri finally spoke, words sympathetic and clearly not what Shiro wanted to hear, by his immediate denial.

"Your brothers and sisters died, and you were frightened," she steamrolled on with the same steadiness she'd faced the storming golem with, not letting Shiro escape the truth.

Shiro was breaking down, eyes widening when Yuri placed a gentling hand on his cheek, his words weak as she drew closer, "yeah, it sucked, but it's no big deal!"

"I," Yuri leaned in, eyelids shuttering and her voice dropping to a murmur until she pressed a soft kiss to Shiro's lips, drawing back slowly before he could react, "I'm in love with you, Shiro."

Rin had his hands over his eyes, feeling the points of his ears heating. He couldn't take it, it was too cute, just like one of those romance manga he'd stolen from Yukio's not-so-secret stash to cry over in his dorm when no one was looking.

"Y-you, how old are you," Shiro's question broke him from his thoughts.

Yuri's response had Rin clutching at Mephisto's arms, "I'm sixteen."

Rin hadn't realized that, actually, his grasp of the timeline and how old anyone was, completely shot by the random jumps through it he'd taken.

"You're just a kid, ain't happening," Shiro grunted, walking off without any further acknowledgement, and Rin could see him pulling his defensive layers back around him with every step he took.

A presence in the greenhouse near his mother had Rin's hands clenching harder into Mephisto where he'd brought them.

Yuri went over to the blue flames that had appeared in the enclosure without hesitation, talking to it like a friend as she relayed her rejection by Shiro.

Rin had broken out in a cold sweat but forced himself to unlatch his tight hold on Mephisto and turned in his arms, stating with as much dignity as he could muster, "that was so embarrassing, the will they-won't they is killing me and I think I'm gonna find somewhere I can scream until I get it out of my system."

"It was fascinating," Mephisto shivered against him, claws tightening at his waist and Rin got the sense, once again, that he was missing something.

Still, he huffed a breath out, smiling, and dropped his hands to Mephisto's arms, "I'll leave you to your people watching, since you don't suffer from second-hand embarrassment, apparently."

Mephisto blinked down at him, a slide of his gaze as green slit-pupiled eyes and a smile that just showed a hint of fang met his words, "please do, Rin, I've been anticipating your reaction to this upcoming scene for quite some time now."

Rin hoped that was positive foreshadowing he'd just heard and not something new for Mephisto to tease him about forever.

His mouth was captured in a kiss while he was distracted with wondering what the next scene could possibly be to have Mephisto almost squirming against him in just contained joy.

Lips left his after one final press, Mephisto stepping back to allow Rin to extricate himself and head to the nearby door. He realized he was trembling in his own anticipation, Mephisto's words and kiss getting him keyed up.

He walked into the void and wound up back in the bowels of Section Thirteen, ice dousing his excitement in a cold rush down his spine at the sight of those metal walls, so confining after the natural environments he'd just been in.

Mephisto came up behind him to lean over his shoulder, his presence immediately calming Rin's discomfort and allowing him to peer into the chamber containing Lucifer he'd have preferred never seeing again.

"You've traveled about four or five years back in time," he said as Rin cracked the door open enough to hear the conversation inside.

"Back?" Rin murmured, thrown for a moment until he realized it really didn't matter whether the story played out in a linear stream when he had the key that could take him anywhere along it and was guided by the king of time, who probably didn't even recognize time in the same way Rin did.

The scene before him included a few researchers keeping watch at the consoles, that strange entourage of people that looked way too eerily similar to each other, and the Grigori member who's name Rin couldn't recall but that they attended.

And, of course, Lucifer himself, still in that horrifying rotted state that combined with the chemical-metal smell of the room in a way that set Rin's nerves on edge.

"That is Shemihaza, Rin," Mephisto said, somehow guessing that Rin had already forgotten the name, which, while embarrassing for Rin, was actually helpful, so he rewarded it with a brush of his fingers to Mephisto's hand.

Shemihaza stepped up to the medical cot where Lucifer lay, the long train of her elaborate robe held by two members of her entourage as she pressed a light hand to his bandaged arm.

"Lucifer," she began, and Rin saw the way his bloodshot eyes focused on her, "the other day, Amaimon left his body of two-hundred years and returned to Gehenna."

Rin sucked in a breath at Amaimon's name, hand gripping Mephisto's as he hung onto Shemihaza's every word for another mention of the earth king. He heard the soft chuckle from Mephisto and fought a scowl, knowing he'd be suffering that brand of teasing for as long as it took him to overcome his instincts.

"Lucifer, this facility and its research have reached their limit, I cannot continue."

Lucifer's body went still, and Rin hoped this Shemihaza woman could see what effect she'd had on the demon king because Rin didn't think it was a good one.

"Please," Shemihaza, brought Lucifer's hand up to hold it between hers as she pled with him, "please, abandon your attachment to material things."

That was the wrong thing to say, Rin gasped when Lucifer clenched his fist, the action prompting fearful cries from the humans in the room as Shemihaza shouted for them to get out until it was just her and Lucifer.

Lucifer shattered the medical implements around him in a flex of power, the breathing tube that had been in his mouth tearing away so his dangerously low voice could echo in the hollow chamber.

"How cruel," he began, speaking around rotted lips and missing teeth as Shemihaza tried to contain the shivers it caused in her.

"I just… want to create a world full of gentle light!" Lucifer shot up in his cot, shouting at Shemihaza while she grit her teeth to muffle a shout at the unexpected move.

"A fair world, where everyone is equal!" Lucifer grew more hysteric, eyes lost in a glaze of his own thoughts, "the haves do not understand the have-nots!"

"But I do!" He gripped the hood of her uniform, bringing her closer, "I want to be a light for the weak, that's all."

Lucifer's body had strained too hard, he coughed, releasing Shemihaza to fall back, "so why?"

"Please, Shemihaza," seeing the terrifying and insane demon king begging scared Rin more than any display of his power had and he forced himself to breathe as Lucifer shouted again, "I need a body that works! Give me hope, too, Shemihaza!"

But Shemihaza was unmoved and Rin didn't know how, "no, Lucifer, we must not change the laws of this world."

Lucifer's eyes widened at the cruel denial, "are you even human?"

"I abandoned human compassion when I took this position." Somehow her answer scared Rin almost as much as Lucifer did.

Rin was sucked into the conversation, unable to anticipate how Lucifer would respond only for his heart to skip a beat as Lucifer bolted upright again, seeming to sense something Rin couldn't.

"What?" Shemihaza asked when Lucifer didn't say anything.

"I sense Amaimon has found his next body."

Rin jolted against Mephisto, heart now pounding in his chest, Shemihaza's responding shock about how soon it was barely registering as Rin realized why Mephisto was looking forward to seeing his reaction to this particular scene.

"Mmm, time to go check on our earth king, Rin," Mephisto breathed against his ear, draping himself over Rin and running a hand down his shuddering frame, "I wonder how he's doing right now."

Rin moved to go put his key, shaking and not even trying to hold it steady in his grip, back into the door to take him to AmaimonAmaimonAmaimon when Mephisto stopped him with a hand on his, "best not do that, Rin."

And snapped, teleporting them into an empty room overlooking another. The bright colors and childish wall art of clouds and rainbows in the room below all paled in comparison to the figure writhing on the floor amongst terrified exorcists and clones, frozen mid-evacuation at the scene.

A green lizard-like tail sprung from the body, pointed ears, black claws, and sharp fangs elongating from their weak human forms into the ones Rin was intimately familiar with. Odd shaped horns, looking like curved emerald wedges and scrawled with a spiral pattern grew to arc back over his head, hair fading from black to a deep green while he let out choked and pained cries.

He arched his spine, body taut in agony and wild eyes focused on his chest as he clawed there until…

Rin stilled where he'd been shivering at the sight.

Amaimon's demonic heart twisted into being, floating over his chest.

The vivid green of the spiked leaves unfurled as the heart grew until it was fist-sized, black spines holding the smaller inner white petals that paled in comparison to the dark red meat of the inner walls forming the pillowed dome rising in the center.

A couple longer leafy off-shoots and something that looked like a secondary flower in its infant state finished the picture that mesmerized Rin.

Even the equally as familiar spike of lighter green that sprung up on Amaimon's head couldn't get his attention.

"I was going to take you straight into the room with him," Mephisto said, voice calling Rin from his spiraling thoughts, "but after that little episode of yours I thought it best to take you to this observation room instead."

The reminder should have annoyed Rin more than it did. But…

"I just really want to see it."

That was definitely his voice speaking, sounding as if through miles of water. The thrumming in his body grew stronger.

"Rin, your eyes are warping."

Rin hummed an acknowledgement clenching his fist harder into Mephisto's suit. He stepped closer to the viewing window, seeing the glint of his red slit pupils and blue-fire irises in it, though they were focused on the way Amaimon stared at his own heart where it floated over his chest.

He really, really wanted to get closer. He wanted to examine every inch of that heart.

Mephisto set his hand over Rin's eyes to block them from watching Amaimon, shaking him from his demonic-headspace.

"You'll just confuse him, Rin," he murmured, apology in his voice where he spoke against Rin's ear.

Disappointment bit hard at Rin's own heart. He knew he'd been missing Amaimon, even though it really hadn't been that long since he'd just woken up in his arms.

But seeing the demon sitting down there with his heart in his hands had Rin aching to go to him. He brought his hands up to rest over Mephisto's wrist and fingers, "I know."

He pulled the hand away, catching Mephisto's gaze in the reflection, "but you won't."

The expression on Mephisto's face froze, pupils slitting as he caught Rin's meaning.

Those green eyes slid to stare back down at an unaware Amaimon, and Rin knew he'd be getting what he wanted.

A soft hiss, like a coiled snake, coming from behind him had Rin's fangs extending in response, revealed when he let his lips curl in a smile.

"Rin," Mephisto pressed along his body in a heated weight, hands at his shoulders and head resting so their jaws touched as he spoke, "have I told you yet how much I love the way your mind works?"

Having one of Rin's claims so close to him balanced the almost painful urge to bolt straight down into the room to get at the other half of his claim, only held back because he couldn't smell or hear Amaimon through the soundproofed glass between them.

"Stay here, Rin."

Rin forced himself to look away, finding his breath coming faster in his lungs as he realized he was definitely going to get what he wanted.

He met Mephisto's gaze, seeing the excitement contained there mirroring his own, and reached forward at the same time Mephisto bent to meet him in an open-mouthed kiss.

Their tongues wound together and Rin lost himself in the feel of it, finding both their fangs extended when he accidentally sliced his tongue against the point of Mephisto's, the taste of his blood only pulling out a muffled moan, swallowed between them.

Rin broke the kiss with a gasp, panting around his rushed words, "do you think he'll take it out for me when I get back?"

"Mmm," Mephisto brushed their lips together again, eyes shuttering at the thought before he drew back to answer, "he might, you'll have to ask nicely."

"I'll bring out mine, it's fair, right?" Rin, pressed closer, hands clenched in the fabric of Mephisto's suit and hips twitching where he'd shoved theirs together.

That got a fang-filled grin sent down at him and Rin could see the thought of such a sight playing through his head. "Yes, that would be fair."

Rin smiled, face flushing as Mephisto emphasized his words with a slow roll of his hips.

He laid his head to Mephisto's chest, looking up at the heated expression that greeted him, "one day, will you let me see yours? I promise I won't eat it like I said I wanted to that night I burned."

The hiss that got, the way Mephisto clamped his arms where they'd rested around Rin's waist, the warped smile on frozen features and thudding heartbeat beneath his cheek- it was exactly the reaction Rin had been hoping for.

His lips widened into a sly smile and he dragged his hand down Mephisto's clothed spine, rubbing at the coils of his tail and delighting in the shudder it drew from the demon.

"But I want to watch you eat Amaimon's heart now, okay?"

An actual groan came from Mephisto and Rin could feel him harden through his clothes. He'd done his job winding him up, now it was time to send him on his way and enjoy the show.

Rin gripped the length of tail he'd been lightly tracing, feeling Mephisto jerk in his arms, "you should probably go down there before he puts his heart away, Mephisto, I don't want to have to go to the next scene like this."

At 'this' Rin echoed Mephisto's earlier move and rolled their hips together again to show how affected he already was.

He took his hand away and stepped back, loving the frustrated sound Mephisto couldn't hide, to reach up and tug him down by the hair framing his face so he could murmur his next words into his ear, "go on, I'll be watching."

Rin had just managed to slide the tapered length of his tongue to the tip of Mephisto's ear when he was spun around and slammed into the panel of the observing window.

"Don't move from this spot, Rin," Mephisto growled into his ear, hand palming him through the layers of his uniform and making him groan against the glass, his breath fogging it where he panted.

"Okay," Rin agreed, breathless and eyes glazing when Mephisto thrust him further to the surface with a rough grind of his hips.

"Good." And then Mephisto left him to shiver where he stood, body weak with excitement over what he was about to witness.

Rin was already focused back on Amaimon, his eyes drawn there, helpless to resist and just barely able to stop himself from going down to him.

The door to the room opened and Mephisto walked in, though really, it should be called a stalk, the way he prowled through the crowd of stunned exorcists towards his true target.

His lips moved, faint smile on his face and soon the exorcists were directing the children out until it was just Mephisto and Amaimon alone.

Amaimon had gone still the moment Mephisto entered, sensing what the humans couldn't, hands caged around his heart as if to protect it. His tail curled until it tucked under his bent knees, thicker than Rin had seen it except the time Mephisto had released him to teach Rin about how far he still had to go if he wanted to defeat Satan.

Rin wondered if Amaimon would use it the way he liked to when it was its usual size, tongue sliding over his lips at the thought. But for the moment, he watched the way Mephisto circled Amaimon's prone form and Rin found his claws scratching into the glass as they twitched there.

Mephisto spoke, eyes narrowed and smile wide as whatever he said caused Amaimon to bring a cautious hand to his own face, prodding at it as if to confirm something before giving a short response back.

The way the two were positioned allowed Rin to see the careful way Amaimon kept his focus on Mephisto, who'd started moving again until he came to stand above him, hands clasped behind his back.

He'd maneuvered so that he faced Rin with Amaimon motionless, his back to the glass so that Rin could see the way his spine tensed through the thin medical gown all the clones wore.

It was only for a second, but Rin caught a flash of acid-green turned up at him where he was hidden by the one-way viewing window and felt his breath catch, knowing Mephisto was about to make his move.

Hyper-aware as he was, Amaimon could see the signs too, head tilted to keep Mephisto in his line of sight even as he curled his legs beneath him as if to rise.

He didn't get a chance to, Mephisto bending to speak something into his ear that had those unblinking gold eyes widening and mouth dropping open to release a silent gasp.

Rin could almost feel the warmth of Mephisto's breath on his own ears, wishing he could hear what was being said, flames coiling under his skin again until his body began to overheat in the confines of his suddenly too-tight clothes.

A cut off groan tried to make its way past Rin's lips as Mephisto slowly crouched back on his calves before Amaimon, his hand rising to the nape of his neck to curl in short green strands.

The remembered feel of that hair in his own hand had Rin fisting it against the glass, imagining himself down there at Amaimon's other side and pressing harder to the smooth surface he leant on.

Mephisto flipped Amaimon around, pulling him to his chest as he settled his fangs at his throat, clawed hand still gripped into his hair to keep him from flinching away from his new position between Mephisto's bent knees.

And he was facing Rin now, demonic heart on full display, throat bared in an arch where he was forced to rest his head to Mephisto's shoulder.

His tail lashed on the ground between his legs, but Rin could see the pink of a flush starting on Amaimon's cheeks and the way his mouth parted around those short gasps Rin could almost hear him making.

Clothes. Rin needed his clothes off, now. The heat had become too much, too constricting.

Rin hissed out a snarling breath and got through the unbelievably annoying buttons of his uniform and he was going to have words with Mephisto about how unnecessarily complicated it was to get the damn thing off next time they saw each other.

Mephisto seemed to have the same idea about Amaimon's clothes, raising a hand and snapping, making Amaimon flinch at the sound and the air on his now bared skin but, Rin stopped his frantic movements, unable to take his eyes off the way Amaimon swayed to rub back against Mephisto's own bared skin.

The sensual slide of Amaimon's body, the way the muscles of his stomach and thighs bunched and flexed in his held position, the power of his deliberately enticing actions- Rin bit off a whine, not wanting to test how soundproof the glass actually was compared to a demon king's enhanced senses.

When Mephisto decided to act, Rin almost sank to the floor, tail coming from around his waist to circle his length, a section free so the tip reached his mouth where he wound his tongue around it to muffle the low cry that escaped.

His hands ran down the stretch of his tail when Mephisto forced his clawed fingers into Amaimon's mouth for him to suck on, saliva already slicking them and making his lips shine in the artificial lights.

Rin wanted to lick at those lips until he had Amaimon moaning against him. He settled for dragging his fist over the fur on his tail, tightening the noose of coils further.

And Mephisto kept his gaze on Rin the whole time he played with Amaimon, each touch and caress of a claw over the body in his grasp made to cater to Rin's eyes.

He realized he'd begun echoing those touches to his own body, trailing his hand up his stomach, imagining his was with his two demon kings and letting the scent of Mephisto on his tie where it brushed near his nose be enough for the moment.

That hand reached Amaimon's chest.

Amaimon noticed where Mephisto's aim was just as Rin did. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in what must have been a shout of some sort.

Claws gripped over Rin's heart at the same time Mephisto snapped his hand up over Amaimon's.

Screaming. Amaimon was screaming, Mephisto's finger's still forcing his head back to his shoulder as he cried around elongated fangs, eyes glassy and body taut like it was being electrocuted by the tail control he'd been under before.

What did it feel like?

Rin panted, sucking in ragged breaths and hips pushing into his tail, aching as Amaimon writhed in Mephisto's hold, eyes rolling in his head and Mephisto still wouldn't release his heart from his hand.

Those acid green eyes didn't move from the lock Mephisto had on Rin, even as he bent over Amaimon's body to let his tongue loll from his mouth and hover over the bright red flesh caught between his claws.

His knees weakened, legs shaking as Rin tried to keep standing, the heat burning through him at the sight and his own desperate movements quickly becoming too much to take.

Throughout the torment, Amaimon's eyes never lost the glaze over them even as his wild movements exhausted themselves and he lay shuddering in the prison of Mephisto's arms, achingly hard still but unable to handle the extreme sensations the touches to his heart must have been sending through him.

Mephisto let his tongue curl between his fingers as he brought his lips the rest of the way to meet Amaimon's heart and sucked.

That was all Amaimon could take.

He came with a scream Rin wished he could hear, the remembered sound of it seeming to echo in his head as he thrust up in jerking snaps of his hips.

Rin clenched his fangs, the low cry following his release escaping anyway as he lost the battle with his limbs and sank to the floor. His tail dropped from his mouth, aftershocks of pleasure making it over-sensitive where it contacted the hard surface, Rin unable to control it enough to lay it down gently.

But, despite his view now compromised by the spatters of his release on the glass, Rin kept his eyes pinned to where Mephisto was still moving against Amaimon's lower back.

And Rin let out another weak moan as he realized Mephisto was using his tail in the same way he had just been, hips stuttering as he came across Amaimon's sweat-soaked and shivering form.

Mephisto finally let his hand fall from the heart, Amaimon giving a weak jolt where he'd been allowed to collapse.

Head lolling, green hair plastered to his skull, tail twitching and clawed fingers bent where they pressed to the tiles, Amaimon looked totally spent.

Rin wanted to curl up next to him on Mephisto's bed and surround himself in their mingled scents.

He brought the tie back to his nose to inhale there, letting Mephisto's be enough, even as his senses kept pushing him to go to Amaimon.

It became even more difficult to resist when Mephisto regained himself and turned Amaimon onto his back to draw him into a kiss, gaze once again going up to where he knew Rin was watching as Amaimon panted into his mouth, still coming down from what he'd just been through.

The press of their lips together had Rin biting at his own, need pressing with increasing insistence at his mind until he shook himself, blinking rapidly and forcing his legs under him to rise.

Rin stumbled away from the viewing window, hands fumbling to draw the tie from around his tail as he used it to clean his length so he could put himself back in his clothes.

Mephisto was either going to be very happy, or very, very unhappy with Rin the next time he saw him, Rin decided, smirking as he tossed the used tie to the floor underneath the stained window.

A gift, since he doubted Mephisto would feel like leaving Amaimon's side for at least another few minutes and Rin really couldn't last much longer being apart from them.

He gave one more glance to the scene in the room below, heart twisting in his chest to see how Amaimon had his nose nuzzled into Mephisto's neck where they lay entwined together.

The key clicked in the lock and Rin entered the void.

End Notes:

Uhhh, I guess you guys are getting a two for one deal in this chapter? Like, that Shiro's balcony scene was supposed to be a quickie against a wall but Rin had other ideas? Maybe bc I missed writing one in the last chapter, so I had to make up for it XD

And I would love to say I was surprised at myself for writing yet ANOTHER 35 gd pages... but at this point I am resigned to never writing another short chapter again (:

So remember how I promised something special for Amaimon's heart? Yeah, this wasn't that, it's still coming ;) Consider this a sampler~

Heart touching inspo brought to you by this INCREDIBLY NSFW FANART for Mephisto/Amaimon I found over on pixiv :D

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Idk, I know technically my fic is erm, also very (very) nsfw? But for some reason the fanart just seems so much uh, raunchier? View at ur own risk I guess lmao