Warning/notes: This story is totally gay! RinxBonxRin or Ribbon as someone has already coined XD and yes, I jacked the title from the awesome song by REM. It should go without saying that I don't own that song or ao no exorcist.

Losing My Religion

"Time's up!" the instructor bellowed

Bon, having snapped back to attention, drew the eraser end of his pencil from between his lips. Ew, the end looked all chewed up now. How long had he been spacing out, mindlessly nibbling the pink rubber? He'd answered all the questions on the paper long before the allotted time. Normally he wasn't a daydreamer.

Now he lazily twirled the yellow stick around his fingers for something to do instead as the teacher walked about the desks collecting their examination papers. His dark eyes followed her as she stopped in front of a particular student, who's pencil still scribbled on the paper so fast it almost flew.

"Okumura-san, your time is up." The teacher glared down at the least diligent student in the class [maybe even in the school], and reached her stubby arm out towards him to show she expected it handed in now. "Yes, yes, sensei," Rin mumbled as the pencil still scratched upon the sheet, "Just signing my name-annnnnd there!" he said in a drawn-out manner then passed the test to the impatient woman with a wide grin. She huffed, obviously not impressed by his boyish charm, then moved on in her collection.

"Pheewwww!" Rin sighed as he reached his arms high above his shaggy hair. The mental exertion from the test had made his joints feel stiff.

Two desks back and one over, Bon eyed his classmate. The fine hair at the back of Rin's neck looked a tiny bit damp like he'd run a block or two and built up a small sweat. Inside his head, he thanked god he wasn't born with idiocy such as his rival had been. Lucky he didn't have to sweat over exams. Especially not ones as easy as this one had been. Strange that the demon boy's twin was a natural genius. He guessed that Yukio must have gotten all the brains, leaving none for the more unfortunate brother. Either that or the actual demonic lineage running though Rin's veins canceled out any good qualities in him, like intelligence.

Bon physically shook that last thought from his head. That wasn't true at all. Some demons were known to be very conniving and manipulative, one needed intelligence and charm for that. Besides, he knew of Rin's many excellent attributes. He'd been paying more and more notice to them as of late. He was seeing all sorts of good in his classmate that he hadn't before...

The school bell finally chimed and most of the students rushed out of their seats.

"Yay! Lunch!," Rin cheered as he grabbed Shiemi's arm, pulling her up from the seat beside him. "Come on Shiemi! I wanna get to the west courtyard and under the big trees before anyone else."

The cute little blonde stumbled behind the boy trying to keep up with him. "R-Rin! slow down," she stammered.

"No way! I've gotta get outta this stupid room! I think that test fuckin' melted my brain! Let's just get outta here and never come back!" Rin ranted. He continued to drag the poor girl out the door with him as she was too meek to try and resist his pulling.

After watching the scene Rin made, Bon calmly gathered up his things and slowly exited the room.

"Yo! Bon!" Shima waved at him from halfway down the hall. He waited for his two best friends as they dodged their way through the lunch period congestion. He himself much preferred the eerily dark and empty halls of the cram school as opposed to the grandeur campus of their day classes. Only one more class after lunch then the real reason he studied at the True Cross academy began. Thank goodness. Normal class was way too easy, not to mention boring.

"Wanna head to the cafeteria guys?" Shima questioned once him and Konekomaru finally made their way to their friend.

"Nah, lets go outside to the west courtyard instead how 'bout?" The faux-hawked teen suggested without even thinking. Why would he want to go there? he thought to himself. It was probably hot outside.

"Hey great idea, Bon!" Well, too late to take that idea back now. "Maybe we'll get to see some girl skin out there today! It's way too hot out for sweaters and top buttons to be done up, eh eh?" Shima, playfully nudged Konekomaru's side as he waggled his eyebrows shamelessly. The tiny boy just rolled his eyeballs with a loud sigh. "Oh shaddup, Koneko. You know you wanna look too! Plus you could use some sun, dude. Girls don't like pastey looking guys ya know." Shima teased as he led the way over to the courtyard.

Shit. It really is too hot out, Bon thought as he loosened his necktie. His beige sweater vest was already laying discarded on the ground beside him. Unfortunately for Shima, none of the many girls socializing in the courtyard had found it as hot as he did and so they stayed in complete dress. This was something that he complained on and off about for the past ten minutes. But Bon hardly noticed anyways since his attention wasn't focused on the idle chat of his two best friends as they sat in a small circle on the grass, eating their lunches.

Across from him, under the shade of the large oak trees, sat Rin and Shiemi. He watched the pair from the corner of his eyes in a way he thought was quite stealthy until, "What are you looking at Bon?" Konekomaru craned his neck to see what was so interesting behind himself. This caught Shima's attention too, so he looked over to spot the pair.

"Checking out Shiemi, eh Bon?" he questioned slyly.

His cheeks reddened. "Of course not!" he said quickly."You're the only pervert here that stares at girls all the time."

Shima's hands flew up in show of peace, "hey, no need to throw insults, man." He chuckled. "We should ask them to come sit with us, doncha think?"

"I dunno..." Konekomaru sighed. "Bon and Rin may get in a brawl if they're within a meter of each other!" Bon didn't even bother to say anything in his own defense at that. "How come you too don't like each other anyways?"

"I like Rin just fine. But he's hard to get along with because he's such an idiot." Bon deadpanned. "besides, it's him that doesn't like me." He added in a lower voice.

"No way!" Shima almost yelled. "Rin thinks you're the coolest. He had this stupid list that you were like, at the top of." Konekomaru and Bon both gave him looks of disbelief. "Seriously, he showed me it. And I wasn't even on it! The guy's a total weirdo," he finished then sipped at his can of juice.

Rin thought he was cool? Bon felt a strange nervous flutter in his stomach.

"Well, weirdo or not, Rin's a cool guy too...and I wouldn't mind sitting with Shiemi either." Shima smirked as he stood up and made his way towards the two sitting under the trees.

The two that were still seated exchanged a look and a shrug and then followed their pink-haired pervert of a friend.

Later, Bon sat in his next class replaying lunch period in his head. How very uncharacteristic of him to not be paying attention. It couldn't be helped though, probably because the lesson was so boring. At least that's what he told himself once the bell had startled him out of his own thoughts. How could class be over already? Admittedly he'd done nothing the entire hour but think about his friends... Rin in particular.

The subject of the math test had come up during conversation after the two groups of friends had joined each other. Rin complained about how difficult it had been and how they hadn't been given enough time to complete it. Bon couldn't help but make a snide comment that he would be better suited to a remedial class if he'd thought that test had been difficult. Daggers were shot from blue eyes at brown ones, but before fists could fly, Shiemi had expertly cut the tension by asking Rin about the contents of his bento. Rin, instantly forgetting Bon's rudeness at the chance to gloat and impress people with his culinary skills, offered her a taste with a beaming smile. She went on in such a way about how great it was that he promised to make her a bento for tomorrow.

Bon felt his stomach drop at the offer. Then plummet further at the way Rin's cheeks turned bright red when the girl graciously accepted.

Why should he be jealous of that? Sure Shiemi was kind of cute, but he didn't like her that way. After sampling a bite of Rin's bento, [he had offered his other three friends a try too] he decided his jealousy was because of how delicious Rin's cooking actually was. He could definitely admit that he'd love it if the half-demon were to make his lunch for tomorrow too.

He was still thinking about Rin's amazing cooking all the way to cram school even. Damn that delicious yakisoba!

Cram class had gone very well that afternoon for Bon. He didn't have any fights with anyone and quietly paid attention like the studious teen he was supposed to be. That might've had something to do with the fact that Rin hadn't shown up for class. Although Kamiki was there, with her normal bitch-face on and making conceited comments, she was still easier to ignore than Rin.

Although he did spend some time entertaining ideas of why Rin wasn't in class, he soon settled on the idea that the half-demon was probably getting private lessons from Shura instead. As if that bastard was so special that they treated him differently from everyone else.

Bon almost scoffed right out loud at this in the middle of Yukio's lecture.