#sugurorin

[tonguetiedraven]

Hi! I've loved reading your fics on ao3 for a long time. I've only joined tumblr recently (social media stresses me out lol) and I found you by chance! A fic idea I have is basically bonrin as third years demonstrating exorcism stuff to a first year class. The class thinks they barely tolerate each other because they bicker so much but they've actually been dating for a long time. I appreciate your work so much, keep it up!

I'm so glad you enjoy my stories, and that you've joined the wild world of tumblr, lol!

This was an adorable idea, though I don't think it came out quite as bickery as intended, lol. Still, I hope you enjoy it, and you can find a link for the full story at the bottom. @marble-wolf cowrote it with me <3

-- -- (ง `‸´)ง Q(・ω・Q) -- --

Kaho was not sure why they’d all been dragged out into the warm spring heat when they sort of had air conditioning in the Cram School. It was rickety and noisy as hell, but it did mostly cool down the old and crumbling halls.

But Professor Okumura had dragged them all out to the training field in the heat and had them standing in a semi circle. She had managed to snag a spot next to her best friend, and she couldn’t help but glance at Hiroto with a slightly raised eyebrow as Professor Okumura adjusted his glasses for the fifth time. His brown hair was curling a little around his temple, hanging in his brown eyes and probably annoying him to no end. 

“Uh oh,” she mouthed, covering a smile with her hand. She turned the motion into a hair tuck, annoyed that it had fallen out of her bun. 

Five fiddles with his eyeglasses? It had only been a few weeks and she already knew that meant he was losing his patience and that the vein in his temple was going to start throbbing.

Professor Okumura looked at his watch, and it was obvious that whatever they’d been dragged out here for, it was late.

Hiroto nudged his friend and gave her a completely alarmed look at the impatient display from Professor Okumura. He leaned slightly closer to whisper as their teacher turned in a slow circle, searching for something. 

"Got any idea?" He whispered, tugging his stupid tie that was restrictive and hot .  

"Kirigakure?" She whispered back. The busty teacher had seemed to take special delight in frustrating Professor Okumura. She was pretty sure the woman had even shown up drunk to a class.

Professor Okumura straightened up and looked entirely unimpressed.

"You're late!" He called out, and Kaho let her eyes travel across the field to where he was looking, only to find her breath catching, because oh. Those were exorcist. Students? She was pretty sure she'd seen the taller one around, but he'd been in the class uniform then. 

They were both at least third years, and they were walking confidently across the field.

Well, one of them was walking. The shorter one with messy dark hair and an exorcist coat. (He wasn't wearing regulation pants. He had on ripped black pants with bright red boots.)

The other taller one was stomping. He had brown hair in and undercut, neat and tidy next to the other messy boy, and his uniform seemed to be a Buddhist robe he'd put a kesa over. He had a bazooka strapped to his back.

"Okumura is why we're late," the taller one — Suguro, if Kaho wasn't mistaken —growled to Professor Okumura. "Not that you probably couldn't guess that."

The dark haired boy grinned, almost having to run a step or two to keep up. He had a completely unapologetic grin on his face and a… a tail that wagged like a happy puppy. 

"I read the time wrong, is all." The boy shrugged. "My 'alarm clock' decided to not wake me up. It doesn't kill Four-eyes to wait." 

"That's a tail?" Hiroto whispered to make certain his eyes weren't deceiving him.  

"Your alarm clock my ass! He was sleeping in the cafeteria!"

Definitely a tail, and she didn't know who these two were, but why had they been picked?

"It's a tail alright!"

Professor Okumura exhaled a loud sigh. “You will address me as Professor Okumura when we’re in a class, Rin.” 

Rin laughed and Hiroto had never seen Professor Okumura turn that color of red before. Rin sauntered over, playing with a chain on his belt and stopped in front of the class with Suguro. The kids were staring at them with wide, curious, and completely baffled eyes that made him laugh again. 

"Hi!" He began with a wave. 

He didn't at all seem like a teacher of any kind to Hiroto. The bigger one looked very grumpy and Hiroto definitely didn't want to get on his bad side. 

"Why can't I call you Yukio?" Rin glanced at his companion. "Professor Suguro?"  

“This,” Professor Okumura said loudly, “is Rin Okumura, Upper Second Class Knight, Tamer, and” Professor Okumura grit his jaw, “Doctor.” 

Suguro rolled his eyes. 

“And Bocchan Ryuuji Suguro, Upper Second Class Aria, Dragoon, and Tamer.”

Kaho sucked in a surprised breath. These were those exorcist? The ones who had gone against Satan? The son of Satan?!

Hiroto's eyes widened and he immediately studied the new exorcists with a new interest. The rumors had flown over what had happened and some had been (or at least sounded) vastly exaggerated but the story at its core was the same. 

The son of Satan and a group of Exwires went against Satan and won. 

And these two… they were it? 

Rin tossed an arm over Ryuuji's shoulders, giving him a squeeze and shaking him. "Yup! That's us!"  

Ryuuji shoved Rin off. “We’re here,” he growled, “to help show you guys some on field meister stuff.” He gave Rin a look. “Damn sight more than they gave us, huh?”

Professor Yukio raised an eyebrow. “Your class had… extenuating circumstances.”

Ryuuji snorted. “That’s one way to put it.” 

Kaho snuck another look at Hiroto. 

Rin crossed his arms. "Exting- extan- extenuating circumstances or not, it was stupid." 

Hiroto shrugged at Kaho, baffled by the whole thing. 

Rin offered the students a grin. "I didn't even know what a meister was."  

“I’m not convinced you do now, Okumura.” Ryuuji said as he unswung his bazooka off his back. 

Professor Okumura sighed again. “Just begin the demonstration.”

Kaho, grinning at the way Rin stole a glance at Ryuuji as he hefted the bazooka onto his shoulder (she did not blame him and was lamenting the robes. He’d rock the actual uniform) leaned over to Hiroto. “Oh my god, they are so into each other.” She spoke at a low whisper, trying to ignore the way Okono looked back at her. 

Hiroto glanced her way and looked back to see and… yup. That had to be something like that. Because Rin wasn't being subtle. 

Rin bounced, like legitimately bounced, like an excited kangaroo and landed a little in front of Ryuuji. His tail was lifted high and wagging and his big fangs were bared in the friendliest of smiles. 

"How do I demonstrate?" Rin asked as the students in the front leaned back. 

(Definitely not a teacher as he looked back between Professor Okumura and Ryuuji.) 

His energy was a lot to handle but there was almost a softness in Ryuuji's eyes as he watched Rin pretty much glow in the sunlight. (With the silver of scars on both of their faces and one across Rin's neck that looked like it had been a fatal hit.) 

"I ship it." Hiroto approved, hiding a grin behind his hand. There was a soft giggle from one of the girls behind them.  

“Are you crazy?” Okono asked. “They can’t stand each other.”

“So? Enemies to lovers is a thing. And look at the way he’s staring!”

“You’re imagining it.”

Professor Okumura cleared his throat and everyone automatically straightened. (Including Rin, much to their amusement.) 

Ryuuji motioned towards his bazooka. “Dragoons are a class that fight using heavy weapons. Knights are a class that fight using swords. Tamers work with and summon demons, whether that's via a circle or through a possessed object. Arias use death verse to kill demons, as well as spells to aid. Doctors use plants, medicine and demons to aid."

"And potions! I'm a potion Doctor!" Rin's tail flicked, smacking into Ryuuji with an audible tapping noise as he pointed at himself in a proud way. He eyed Ryuuji again, grinning mischievously. "I was a Knight first though. No Aria for me. This guy is weird and can memorize entire books." 

Not like Ryuuji hadn't tried with Rin. That had failed spectacularly.

"No, that's flirting. Rin likes him." Hiroto pointed out.  

"Says the guy with a tail," Ryuuji huffed. "And you make broths. You can call them potions, but they're broths."

"The demonstration?" Professor Okumura sighed (the third time!) as Ryuuji shoved Rin away. (He was blushing! Was that from Rin? Or was it an anger flush?)

Ryuuji bowed his head a little. "Of course, sensei."

(Now Professor Okumura was the one that looked embarrassed.)

"Okumura, get over here so I can shoot you."

There was something almost playful in the buff dragoon's tone as he pushed some kind of missile looking thing into his bazooka.

"Everyone, put in the ear protection we provided."

"Oh my god," Kaho whispered again. If these two weren't dating, they needed to be.

Rin bounced over to Ryuuji, grabbing the bazooka's muzzle to aim it at himself with a tilt of his head and a teasing grin. Rin lifted aside his exorcist coat to reveal a sword and looked over at Professor Okumura like he was asking for permission. 

The ear protection muffled everything but Hiroto could see Kaho excitedly glancing his way again.  

“Not that close, moron!” Ryuuji huffed and pushed Rin back with the launch. “Get across the field. And remember, it’s not supposed to actually hit you. I’m just showing how the thing goes off and how to aim. Burn it up before it hits you and blows up.”

“You can use your sword for that.” Professor Okumura confirmed.

Rin stumbled back, and almost too fast to follow, he was further down the field and dropping into a playful crouch. Rin's hand dropped to his sword and tugged it free with a long sweep of his arm. 

Hiroto's heart leapt into his throat as blue flames roared to life. Rin's features shifted, his hair bled white and his fangs lengthened. His eyes were glowing and his tail lashed as he called out, "shoot me!" His voice was a deeper snarl that was still playful but just more wild.  

Kaho covered her mouth in shock as Ryuuji visibly rolled his eyes. He checked the rocket one last time, nodded in approval, checked behind him to make sure no one was there, looked back at Rin, scowled, muttered something she couldn’t hear but Rin seemed to because he just snickered, and held up three fingers. He lowered them one at a time, and Kaho’s entire body tensed before the last finger was lowered and the blast went off. 

It was loud. Even through the ear protection. A plume of smoke billowed from the back of the bazooka, and something rocketed out of the front and straight towards Rin. Ryuuji didn’t so much as flinch from the blast. Professor Okumura seemed to be taking the moment to clean his glasses.

Rin swung his sword, the broken sword, and the blade of flames grew longer and it was impossible to actually follow with their eyes as the two weapons made contact and exploded. The flames continued forward, brushing playfully around Ryuuji. They ruffled his hair and batted at his clothes and danced around in a show of blue.  

Ryuuji slid the bazooka off his shoulder and to the ground in a smooth moment as his hands came together. He growled something that made Rin laugh and had the blue flames ruffling Ryuuji’s hair again.

Apparently unimpressed, Ryuuji summoned what looked like a shimmery wall around himself. Kaho tugged her ear protectors off and heard the end of some spell. 

The flames were forced back from him, becoming larger for a moment before the wall shimmered once more and the flames started to shrink and darken.

Some kind of wind spell? That quickly? And these were still students?

She swallowed and gave Hiroto another glance. They had a long way to go. She was also still firmly on her ‘they should be lovers’ train. Rin certainly seemed to feel the same way. (Or at least enjoyed the hell out of annoying Ryuuji.)

Ryuuji was harder to get a read on, but there was something competitive in the smile he was giving Rin. It didn’t look like enemies at least. 

(Maybe it was more rivals to lovers than enemies to lovers.)

[empresskira]

Adorable!!! :3

[tonguetiedraven]

Raven, I have a humble request. I am starved more fluff content. Y'know that thing where if you're somewhere cold, and if you get wet you should take off the wet clothes and cuddle with someone else to preserve body heat? Yeah, it would be remarkable if you wrote a tad bit of bonrin with that.

Perhaps a bit of smut, as a treat.

I was aided in filling this request with help of the fantastic @marble-wolf and it is amazing to me that with all the icy stories I've written, this hasn't really come up xD

Here's a snippet of it with a link to the full story. A bit of smut was included in that version. As a treat ;)

Cold. Suffocatingly cold that felt like shards of glass that made everything painful and tried to force Rin to inhale from the sheer shock of how horrible it was. His clothes were heavy, his boots even more so, as he kicked to try to get his head above water. Above the water that made his muscles ache with the chill that battled the cold empty feeling of the black flames that had barely touched him but still left him flameless and lethargic. 

He got to the surface somehow, grasping at the edge of the ice that cracked and fell in and he was thoroughly panicked now, his breathing painful and ragged. His head frantically turned in search of the demon they'd been fighting. 

Ryuuji bellowed out the last syllables of the death verse, hurrying across the ice as quickly as he dared, ducking and sliding the last few meters to avoid her dying blast of black flames, and brought himself to a stop right before he slid into the hole with Rin.

“Rin! Hang on!” 

Ryuuji flipped himself around, getting flat on his stomach and stretching to spread his weight out over the thin ice, reaching forward as it creaked and groaned. His boyfriend was clawing at the water, but his movements were getting less wild, and it looked like the horrible cold of it was starting to slow Rin down.

“Babe, get your legs up for me. Get flat like you’re swimming.” He reached into the ice, snagging one of Rin’s hands, icy cold because Rin had ditched his gloves, and it was a chill Ryuuji could feel even through his own glove.

He waited for Rin to do as directed, got a good hold on Rin’s hand, and began to shimmy himself backwards, pulling Rin flat onto the ice with himself, spreading his weight out so the fragile ice had a better chance of holding him up.

He didn’t stop backing up when Rin was entirely out, he didn’t stop until the ice was no longer creaking and bitching beneath them. Satisfied that they weren’t both going to plunge into the icy horribleness below, he surged to his knees and hauled Rin upright with him, wrapping him up close as the knot of fear in his chest he hadn’t allowed himself to concentrate on flared to violent life. 

Rin was a terrible kind of pale. The kind that made Ryuuji think of too many instances of Rin bleeding out and almost dying and he was shaking in a horrible way.

Rin got his arms around Ryuuji, shivering as the water poured off of him and made the ice slicker. He hid his face against Ryuuji's scarf, panting too fast and he just barely managed to not rip Ryuuji's thick coat with how tight he held onto him. 

That had easily been the coldest water Rin had ever been in and its icy touch continued to trace down his skin with every trail of water.  

“I’ve got you,” Ryuuji assured, holding Rin as tight as he dared, feeling the sheer magnitude of wet trying to seep into his clothes as well. Far too much icy water in this frozen place, and Rin had taken a hell of a hit from those black flames, and “Fuck!”

Ryuuji pulled back, looking around helplessly at the frozen lake. “We gotta get you outta—your backpacks gone?”

Still in the water? Rin had the tent. Fuck! 

There wasn’t time to lament that loss. Ryuuji forced himself to breathe and focus. He had read the survival guide over and over and knew the steps. 

“We gotta get all this off of ya before it does more damage. Come on, strip, quick” Ryuuji set to unzipping Rin’s now useless coat before switching to unsling his own backpack. 

Rin's fingers didn't want to work as he fumbled with buttons and zippers and the laces of his boots (completely filled with water that he was certain had been hurting but his feet were numb now.) He shed his coat, the soaked splat loud in the eerie quiet of after a fight and he took a long moment figuring out the slippery leather of his boots. He managed to get them off, followed by his socks. He really didn't want to sit on the ice but he got his pants partially off his thighs before his hands went completely, uselessly numb. (And it burned. It was like holy water without the sizzling.) 

He looked up at Ryuuji, teeth chattering, fangs cutting his lips as he tried to form words that didn't want to come.  

“Hold on, sweetheart,” Ryuuji rushed, rolling the sleeping bag out for Rin to sit on so he didn’t have to touch the ice. “I’ve got—” he pulled out his spare sweater and a towel, hurriedly dabbing at Rin’s arms and chest to get rid of some of the water before tugging the sweater over his head. His spare pants followed that, and he cinched them as tight as he could to keep them around Rin’s waist before pulling out the hoody. That went on over Rin’s sweater, and he pulled the hood up to cover Rin’s ears, pressing a kiss to his frozen cheek before unwinding his own scarf and wrapping it around Rin’s head and throat. He didn’t have spare gloves so he put his on Rin’s, and gave him his spare pair of socks, doubling them up and knowing that was only going to help a bit until he got them out of here. 

They were on a frozen (or partially frozen) lake, and there seemed to be a million miles of empty land around them, but the demon had supposedly been living at a sanka, so they had to find that. 

Ryuuji focused on his boyfriend again, cupping Rin’s cheeks with his still warm palms and looking around. “We gotta find where she was living.” His eyes locked on Rin. “You okay for me to carry you?”

Rin nodded, though he was shivering so much that he doubted Ryuuji could actually tell. "Y-yeah." He hurriedly said. 

His hands were on Ryuuji's shoulders though he couldn't feel even the gloves on his hands. 

(Ryuuji was the one who got cold. He got really cold and he was giving Rin all of his warm things and Rin wished he could tell him no.)  

Ryuuji looked down at Rin’s frozen things and decided he was ditching everything but the boots and coat. He strapped both of those to his backpack, put that on, and stood up before hefting Rin to his chest. He coaxed his boyfriend’s legs around his waist, pressed a kiss to Rin’s frozen cheek, and encouraged him to tuck his face against Ryuuji’s throat while he hauled the sleeping bag up and open. He tucked it around Rin in a sort of cape and let himself look around again.

She’d come from the west, so that was most likely where her home had been. Hopefully it could offer some shelter.

Ryuuji got a better grip on Rin’s thigh and back and headed that way at as quick a pace as he dared on the ice. 

Rin's body was shivering too much and his face was hidden as he tried to get his flames to come. The chill of black empty flames kept his firmly quelled and his soaked tail hung limp though he forced himself to reach down and haul it up over his leg to keep it from dragging. 

Rin's shivering slowly eased and he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing as his breathing calmed and he relaxed a little as the sound of Ryuuji's footsteps changed from ice to crunchy snow. He hoped it wasn't too far because it really was too cold for Ryuuji.  

“Can ya talk to me, babe?” Ryuuji asked, not liking that it was really just the sound of his own footsteps and the wind around them. He wanted to keep Rin up and alert. As alert as he could get him at least. “I want to make sure you aren’t trying to fall asleep on me.

They were under the trees now, and it looked like there was something ahead. He just couldn’t be entirely sure.

Rin was tired. "'M awake." He began anyway, forcing his eyes open though all he could see was the darkness he had curled into against Ryuuji. "Tired… get home and make curry… fuck, bet my phone is gone." 

(You'd think True Cross would have a fund set aside for the many times exorcists lost their phones due to exorcisms.) 

Rin was pleasantly numb now at least. The sharp feeling of cold had faded completely.  

“Probably in the coat pocket and fried. We’ll harass Mephisto for another one,” Ryuuji commented as he moved around the trees. There was absolutely a building ahead and he was about to cheer with delight about that, but he was going to wait for any celebrations to see how together it was. 

“Curry?” He continued, picking up his speed as Rin’s shivering seemed to get worse. Please, please, please, let there be a fireplace in there ready to be warm and perfect. “Sounds like a good reason to sneak over to your dorm.” He tipped his head towards Rin, feeling a bit discouraged by the holes he could see in the paper walls. No locks to get them back quickly. Damn it. 

“Not that you’re not a good reason to sneak over.”

Rin coughed a laugh, attempting to tighten his grip and he forced his head up to grin. "You should sneak over! Curry and no studying… couldn't Mephisto have sent someone else on this stupid mission?" 

Rin shivered violently, curling himself back down as the wind picked up a little. The dark spot against Ryuuji's chest was tempting. He wanted to sleep there. It was his favorite spot and the call to sleep was trying to grow stronger, strong enough that his tail slipped and dragged and almost tripped up Ryuuji before he caught it and set it back over his leg. 

"And a nap." Rin mumbled.  

“Oi,” Ryuuji pinched Rin’s thigh. “I feel ya nodding off. Get your ass up. You’re not sleeping on me.” They weren’t too far from the ‘house’ now. (It was in shambles but might block some elements and that was all he could really hope for at this point.) 

“Tell you what, get my coat open and slip your hands in there. Use some of my heat to warm yourself back up.” 

If there wasn’t a fire, they’d have to do a lot of that. He’d probably do a lot of that any way, but they wouldn’t have much of a choice if there was no fire.

Rin turned his head to get out of the wonderful darkness and stared at the trees, endless trees, with slightly dazed eyes. His hands grappled at Ryuuji's coat, getting it open and slipping his hands under Ryuuji's shirt and against Ryuuji's incredible back. 

"We got up too early. Stayed up too late." Rin defended himself with a slur. "You're comfy."  

"I got up too early. You slept for another hour. And it's your own fault we were up late. You distracted me with your grabby hands, Okumura," Ryuuji lightly teased. He didn't like how slurred Rin was.

He let go of Rin's back to reach for the door and slid it open, and —

And immediately felt panic grip his chest at how run down it all was.

"You like my grabby hands." Rin murmured, sliding his glove-covered hands down Ryuuji's back to grip his sides. 

Rin looked back at their new surroundings and groaned at the ramshackle place that was dusty and dim and offered only some protection from the harsh world around them. 

"Fuck." Rin grumbled and tried again to get his flames past the lethargy.  

Ryuuji slid the door shut with his foot and decided to just be rude and keep his boots on as he walked further into the crumbling home. 

“This place’ll have to work,” Ryuuji muttered to himself and moved to the center of the room. 

The irori was completely frozen over. The sunken pit was covered in mostly frozen logs and the pot that had been over it was broken and rusted, and there was no hope of getting anything warm from that.

Fuck. 

“Alright,” Ryuuji mumbled, mostly still talking to himself. “New plan. Right. Okay.”

Ryuuji gently set Rin down, gave his cheek another kiss, and decided he was still far too cold. 

“This isn’t me getting fresh with you,” Ryuuji stated, trying to sound teasing and managing to not sound entirely frantic, “But I need you to strip again and climb in that sleeping bag.”

He tugged off his own coat as he spoke.

Rin moved to follow Ryuuji's words, trying to grin as his fangs chattered and his clumsy hands managed to get off his clothes, though he left on the socks. His legs up to his knees felt numb and he was nervous to even look at them. 

"But I like when you're fresh with me." Rin giggled, feeling a little sick from the cold.  

“I’m not saying it’s off the table,” Ryuuji offered, tugging off his sweater and thermal shirt and shucking off his pants and underwear before motioning for Rin to get in the sleeping bag. 

He carefully piled all of those items on top of the sleeping bag, and then shoved himself into the space next to Rin. The ground was immediately the coldest spot, so he laid on his back and hauled Rin on top of himself, struggled violently with getting it zipped, had to shimmy Rin’s tail out of the way, and finally got them sealed inside. 

“Wrap yourself around me as much as you can, okay?” Ryuuji asked while he tugged his jacket over their heads to block out some of that chill. 

(Rin was worryingly cold.)

Rin set his hands on Ryuuji's shoulders, pressing his nose to Ryuuji's throat and wrapped his tail (damp and frozen and possibly crusted with ice) around Ryuuji's thigh. Rin's sock covered feet curled against Ryuuji's hips but Rin still couldn't feel them. He should probably take off his socks but between his feet and tail, he'd probably freeze Ryuuji rather than Ryuuji warm him up. 

"I like this." Rin mumbled against Ryuuji's collarbone.  

“Yeah?” Ryuuji asked, smiling a little as he fought back a shiver. Rin’s entire body was freezing. “Like naked cuddling? Who’d’ve guessed?” 

He snaked his hand around and snagged one of Rin’s hands, tucking it between his arm and side so it could warm up. He brought Rin’s other hand up to his lips and breathed on Rin’s frozen fingers, trying to bring some heat and feeling back to them.

Rin closed his eyes, enjoying the new warmth and laying against Ryuuji. 

"Naked cuddles with one hot rooster." Rin said, feeling his breathing slow more as he relaxed. This was nice after the shock of the water. His tail squeezed Ryuuji's leg gently, and some of the ice on the fluffy part of his tail fell off.  

“You are still trying to fall asleep on me,” Ryuuji pinched Rin’s hip with his other hand before he slid it up and down Rin’s back, trying to rub some heat into him. “Stop that or I’ll make up some test for you. Or homework.” 

It was entirely quiet in here, and it occurred to Ryuuji as they cuddled together and shared their body heat, that he probably should have done at least a basic check for any other demons or animals that might have made this their home.

"Keep me awake." Rin mumbled, freeing a hand to get his socks off and set his frozen feet against Ryuuji's legs. "Not my fault you're so comfy." 

But he was warming up. Ryuuji was warm and smelled good and was holding him so nicely. Ryuuji's hand moved up and down his back and Rin managed a deep, happy purr that rumbled through them.  

“Do you have any idea how much of a challenge it is keeping you awake or waking you up?” Ryuuji asked, laughing a little bit. Rin was a heavy sort of weight on him, and he’d always found that he liked that weight. It seemed like it should be stifling, but Rin had never been stifling. 

“Guess turnabout is fair play. This is karma for all the times I’ve shoved my frozen toes on you. Better enjoy it, Okumura, ‘cause I’m gonna be using you as my defroster again after this.” 

[tonguetiedraven]

Bonrin Au where Rin is a cat-shifter that follows Ryuuji around bc he's head over heels in love with Ryuuji?

I actually have Ryuuji return Rin's scenting/cheek rubs in a lot of my fics, and works with a lot of Rin's quirky behavior, returning it where he can and adjusting to accept it when he can't (like he can't loop his tail around Rin's, but he can pet Rin's tail when it loops around him.) :) they're fun little quirks that I think he'd pick up because he knows it feels like love to Rin.

But, with @marble-wolf's help, I have a cat sidhe Rin fic to fill these both :D

And a snippet:

Ryuuji slid the door to his small temple open and stepped out, tilting his head towards the sky and enjoying the warmth on his face. He could hear a tatarimokke calling from the trees and spared the bird feeder a glance, confirming there was still enough food there for the day. 

The bowls by the monk hall were empty though, which meant there was likely to be a few thirsty and grumpy demons wandering around in search of breakfast. 

It was a little strange to think of this as breakfast since he’d already been up for hours at this point, but he’d only met a few demons that got up before noon. Even his fellow temple member didn’t want to get up before noon. Though Shima could hardly be described as devout.

He wasn’t even sure where his friend was currently. Probably sleeping under a tree or trying to entice one of the shrine maidens next door out on a date. Ryuuji was going to have to spend his evening removing another curse if that was the case.

Regardless, Ryuuji made his way across the yard, greeting the demons that stirred around him, whistling a greeting to the tatarimokke and aosagibi. He gave the hell hound and kludde a scratch behind their ears, and dodged the shougorou’s swinging mallet tail and pat it on its gong back, sending a loud noise through the temple grounds that woke anything else up. 

Joukahi-ji was quite possibly the strangest temple around here, but it had been and was Ryuuji’s home, and he loved it. Cursed or not. It had always been the roles of the Suguro’s to watch over the old buildings, and thanks to the kirin blood in his family, all the demons that wandered onto the land.

His grandfather had insisted they get rid of the creatures, but Tatsuma had snuck them in, and by the time Ryuuji had come around, there had been more demons than people. A trend that had continued until it was just his family and Shima. (Shima who had more or less wandered in and simply not left.)

The demons tended to be friendlier, so Ryuuji had no real complaints. They did eat a lot though. 

Ryuuji went into the dining hall that was mostly empty (Ukobach was chattering away in the kitchen and didn’t seem to notice Ryuuji come in.) He snagged the cat food and dog food and brought it back out, filling up the bowls and wondering if a trough would be a better option as he was greeted with a chorus of excited noises as they dove into the meal. 

Konekomaru ignored it and jumped to his shoulder with an excited “Bon!” 

Ryuuji reached up to scratch his chin. “Hey, Neko. What’s—”

There were two new cats. Ryuuji would bet money on it. (If he had any.) A white one with a thick and beautiful coat and the most vibrant of blue eyes, and a rustic brown one with soft teal eyes and a few black spots on his handsome face.

The tiny horns had Ryuuji suspecting cat sidhe’s. Young ones judging by the single tails.  At least they weren’t ancient as Kuro and his millenia old self.

“Hello,” Ryuuji called softly, not wanting to frighten them, but wanting to know if they were here for a meal, aggressive, or just curious. “I don’t think I’ve met either of you. I’m Ryuuji Suguro, and this is Joukahi-ji.” 

The brown cat shuffled back a step, ears folding and the white cat's tail lifted in a hook as he stepped curiously closer.

"Hi! I'm Rin. And that's Yukio." Rin the cat sidhe introduced with a flick of his tail. 

The place had radiated a peaceful, welcoming aura and he was already happy they had stopped. (Ryuuji, huh? Fitting.) The many demons had just watched them carefully and the guardian of the place wasn't looking at them with ill-intent. Actually his eyes were gentle and the demons were flocking to him, hanging off his arms and nipping at his legs affectionately.  

Ryuuji crouched down, hardening his shoulder with some scales as Konekomaru dug his claws in to keep his grip, and offered his hand to the new cat sidhes. 

“Welcome to Joukahi-ji. You’re free to eat and drink and explore. Just don’t go in to the temple. It’s blessed and will probably hurt your paws.”

The cat sidhes didn’t look sick, so he wouldn’t have to worry about them spreading anything, and aggressive cat sidhes didn’t tend to be this… tiny. Or maybe Kuro was the only one that went enormous when he was angry. He’d warn his mother about the new demons anyway. 

Rin bumped his brother encouragingly. "We can stay! Come on Yukio, don't be shy." 

Rin trotted the couple steps closer to the guardian of the temple and sniffed at his fingers. Ryuuji smelled like thunderstorms and the burning wood that temples liked to use and something spicy and a hint of something like the purest lake waters. 

Rin decided that was alright and set his head against Ryuuji's palm, scraping his horns gently against the skin and rubbing his cheeks against him.  

Ryuuji felt a small thrill at the gentle scenting and acceptance, just like he always did. Humans avoided him like the damn plague but he could win the trust of something as dangerous and wild as a demon, and that was something. (And sure, it didn’t hurt that his demon blood was a kirin and their scent was like rolling out a welcome mat to demons.)

“Rin,” the other cat called. “Be careful!”

“Yeah,” Ryuuji said, meeting Rin’s blue eyes (he’d never met a blue-eyed cat demon) “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. Just let me know if there are any more of you, and don’t attack the other demons that live here. If they’ve got my scent, they stay here.” He scratched Rin under his chin. “The guy with pink hair also lives here. And my ma, but she smells like me.” 

Shima probably smelled a little like him, but he mostly smelled like death. (And that wasn’t actually his fault. Yamantaka just put off a hell of a stench.)

Rin looked back at Yukio. "He's nice !" 

(It wouldn't be the first time they were attacked by cruel demons or people but Rin wasn't getting anything bad from Ryuuji.) 

"I won't attack anybody." Rin batted at Ryuuji's fingers playfully and looked up at the other cat demon on Ryuuji's shoulder. 

"Hello," Rin greeted.  

Konekomaru’s ears flicked back momentarily. “Hi,” he returned. Then he nudged at Ryuuji’s cheek. “Bon, he smells kinda… weird.” 

Ryuuji straightened back up and gave Konekomaru’s cheek a scratch. He couldn’t smell anything weird, but Konekomaru also smelled like smoke so it was hard to smell anything past that. 

“There’s another cat sidhe,” Ryuuji said, deciding not to touch the smells weird thing right now. “Kuro. He’s…” Ryuuji had no idea where the cat sidhe was. Probably napping with Kuro as watch. Lazy bastard was always bribing the cat sidhe into watching for Ryuuji or Torako. 

“He’s probably somewhere. The forest and the inn mark the edges of our area. You can talk to me about any questions.” 

"Okay. Thank you!" Rin chirped and again looked back at his brother. "Yukio is shy."  

Rin sniffed at the monk's robes and set a paw on his knee to lift up to nose at the other cat demon. (Rin hadn't ever seen one like that before. Actually… he didn't know what a lot of these demons were.)  

Konekomaru leaned down a little nervously. Ryuuji didn’t comment on the flicker of orange fire that rolled down the kasha’s back. 

He didn’t think there was a reason to be worried about them. Yukio was slowly inching closer, seeming to take some courage from Rin and the fact that nothing violent had happened yet. 

Ryuuji gave the cats another moment to sniff each other out and stepped back just in time to hear a shriek from Izumo.

So that was where Shima had gone.

Sighing a bit, Ryuuji turned to see exactly why the kudagitsune was shrieking. Izumo tended to do it a lot, for both dire and nonsensical things.

She was too tiny to spot across the yard, so he moved towards the sound. It was coming from the south end of the temple, near the border. Was she in the forest? Had she gone wandering with Shiemi? 

He ran towards the sound, trying not to sigh audibly as he did, robes rustling around his feet and making Konekomaru cling more tightly to his shoulder before abandoning ship and jumping to the ground to run beside him. The spectacle shaped red markings around his eyes ignited as he ran, and that made Ryuuji pay a bit more attention to the shriek. 

Was there something actually out there? 

Yukio watched the tall monk run off and promptly moved to Rin’s side. 

“Careful,” he hissed. “We don’t know anything about this place. Isn’t it kind of weird that there are so many demons here?”

"Isn't it a good sign?" Rin asked in return. "Bunch of demons might mean it's safe?" 

Rin wanted to follow so he did at a slower pace, curiosity too strong to ignore. 

"It seems okay to me." Rin told his worried brother.  

Yukio huffed. “You’re just saying that because he fed you.” (He didn’t point out that he’d eaten as well.)

Ryuuji kept running to the border and saw Shiemi standing a few meters away from her tree, nervously waving her flower-laden arms. 

“What is it?” he asked, jogging up to her and still not seeing Izumo’s shrieking self. 

“Ghouls!” She gasped, spilling a few leaves as she bounced nervously from foot to foot. “She’s too far out. My roots can’t reach her.”

“I’ll get her. Don’t strain yourself.” If they were ghouls, Shiemi could get root rot from them and that was a headache he did not want to deal with. 

At least he had Konekomaru. Ryuuji could exorcise the demons and Konekomaru could burn what was left of the bodies. 

The stench hit him before he saw the ghoul — a full naberius — lumbering around the trees beyond their border. Izumo had gotten herself halfway up the tree before pausing to hiss and swipe her paw at the demon. She wasn’t any bigger than a squirrel, and she was posturing like she was one of the hell hounds and actually stood a shot of scaring it off. 

“Izumo!” He called, drawing her attention and the stitched ghoul’s. “Climb up the damn tree!” He followed his order up with the death verse, quoting the last verse of John and feeling the spark of power leave him and his eyes turn a bit golden as it did. 

The naberius lunged for the tree, missed Izumo, and groaned as it was driven from the stitched body and destroyed. Konekomaru dove for the remainder of the corpse, cremating it and preventing it from ever being possessed again. 

“I had it!” Izumo shrieked even as she extended her paw for Ryuuji.  “I could have taken it.” 

Ryuuji lifted her off the tree and took her back to Shiemi. The nymph could handle her. 

Rin had arrived to peek between the trees and watched Ryuuji take down the ghoul with wide eyes before watching Ryuuji's interactions with the other demons. 

They were interesting. The demons… weren't familiars and Ryuuji seemed to have a good relationship with them. 

"You see that, Yukio?!"  

Yukio had seen that and didn’t know what to make of it. At least Suguro seemed strong. He went up to Rin’s side and bumped his head against Rin’s. He smelled a little like Suguro. Not a lot, but it was there.

“Why were you past the border?” Ryuuji asked as he set Izumo in Shiemi’s green arms. 

Izumo hid herself in Shiemi’s sleeve and peeked out with a huff. “That ghoul. I wasn’t going to let it mess up Shiemi’s roots.” She rolled her eyes like it was obvious. Ryuuji supposed it was. 

He turned back with his own huff (more amused than frustrated) and saw the new cat sidhes staring at him. 

Rin's tail lifted at being noticed and trotted over. The sun was dancing in the trees' swaying leaves and made Ryuuji look as if he were glowing and he looked fierce and handsome. 

(Luckily, cats can't blush.) 

"That was cool!" Rin cheered, bounding over a little faster.  

Most of the demons here saw him exorcise a rot demon every other day. It was nothing to them. Apparently it was something to Rin though. He almost never got complimented for it, and he found himself blushing a little at the compliment. 

He put on a smile and crossed his arms. “Just a naberius,” he said with a shrug. “Not a big deal.” (And then it occurred to him he sounded like Izumo and the smile fell even as the blush darkened.)

Rin sat down and looked up at Ryuuji. (He was so tall.) 

"Big demon, big deal!" Rin decided and as Konekomaru crept back over Rin crouched and jumped at him.  

Konekomaru, apparently caught off guard, yowled and bolted for Ryuuji, entirely on fire and making him yelp as he got a face full of gray cat. He stumbled back a step, yelping and colliding with Shiemi who steadied him while Izumo laughed.

Ryuuji managed to peel his oldest friend off his face and tried to spit the fur out of his mouth and blink it out of his eyes.

“Neko!”

“Sorry, Bon.” 

Ryuuji dropped Konekomaru right back on the ground. He moved a little closer to Rin, dousing his red flames and dipping his head apologetically. 

Rin, fur puffed out and barely keeping his own flames away, flattened himself on the floor. 

"Did I scare ya? Sorry! I like your flames! I've never seen a demon like you before!" He crept a little closer and stuck a paw out. (He could see Yukio behind him, also puffed out and looking nervous.) 

“I’m a… kasha,” Konekomaru confessed, lowering his eyes in embarrassment. Ryuuji frowned at that. Konekomaru didn’t dig up bodies and he didn’t eat people, so Ryuuji saw no reason for him to be looked down upon. He mostly used his flames to burn back some of the rot they were eternally burdened with. 

(More naberiuses. He’d have to tell Tatsuma when he got back from the village. His dad was going to have to go burn back down the Impure King.)

"Oh! Okay." Rin didn't know what that was. "I'm a cat sidhe demon thing."  

(Yukio hated when he called them that but their lineage was weird.) 

Rin looked up at Ryuuji and the other demons watching them. Yukio was moving closer and Rin once again risked a gentle bat at Neko's head.  

Konekomaru returned the bat. Ryuuji watched them for a moment and decided they were all probably going to be okay. No one seemed to be visibly not getting along, and he trusted the others to let him know if Rin or Yukio tried anything they shouldn’t. 

With that decided, Ryuuji started towards the inn.

[tonguetiedraven]

BonRin Zombie Au Part Three

A Poll Your Own Adventure. (Part Two here )

Something rustled behind Ryuuji, and his heart leapt up to his throat, thundering far too loudly for him to possibly hear around. His instincts demanded he bolt and run for it, but he knew enough to know that would spell death. The volume of that would attract everything’s attention and he needed to move now and not get caught. 

Ryuuji straightened a little and picked up his pace, breathing too loudly, moving too loudly, and feeling about as subtle as an earthquake. 

The corn leaves sliced at his face and he felt something dripping down his cheek, and he darted the last few meters, hissing a bit at another slice and finally breaking free. He stumbled over dirt, straightened, and rammed right into a body.

“Ooph!”

Ryuuji squeaked out a noise instead of yelping, scrambling back from the body he’d hit and tripping over dirt to land back in the corn. His fingers dug into the cool dirt and he stared up as something rustled behind him.

It was the boy. 

He looked taller from the ground, and Ryuuji could confirm that his eyes were dizzyingly blue and focused. They were looking at him and not at his throat or body. They were looking at his eyes and they were wide with worry. 

His veins were pulsing and dark, and Ryuuji could see the spread of a rot rash crawling along his throat. 

“Get up,” the boy rushed, “someone’s coming, and—”

His blue eyes shot off to the right and he seemed to lose what little color he had. “Shit! Now?”

The boy lurched forward as his eyes turned back to Ryuuji. He leaned forward, extended his hand, and kept staring right at Ryuuji.

“Come on!”

There was another crash and a hiss behind them, and Ryuuji, for reasons he couldn’t understand, took the boy’s hand. He was hauled up effortlessly. A bit too effortlessly. He ended up over correcting and falling forward against the zombie boy and caught sight of sharp ears and fangs, and red in those ludicrously blue eyes. All demonic, but not in the rot way. How had he not noticed that?

“Come on,” the boy urged, and they were suddenly both running and moving away from the corn field and whatever had been to the right. They ran for the forest and the cover of trees, and Ryuuji could feel blood dripping down his face and wind on his face and the rain -wet ground squishing and unsteady under his feet, but they were moving and they were fleeing from the danger of what was coming and diving between trunks, getting caught at branches and undergrowth as they went.

The boy didn’t let go of his hand. Ryuuji didn’t notice the fact at first, couldn’t possibly notice anything but the burn in his legs, lungs, and face as they ran. The familiar ache of running he’d used to love because it felt like freedom and now was his only option and felt like being chased.

When he did notice it, he noticed because the boy’s hand was hot. He had been grabbed and pulled at by dozens and dozens of zombies during this nightmare, and they had all been horribly and unnaturally cold. They felt inhuman. Not cold enough to be dead, but wavering on the edge of it. 

This boy didn’t feel like that at all, and that realization and the realization that he was following the boy had Ryuuji tripping and stumbling them both to a stop.

The boy turned towards him all wide eyed and breathless. (The zombies never seemed to notice they needed to breathe.) 

“You okay? Did they hurt you?”

“Who are you?” Ryuuji blurted, freeing his hand and taking a slightly overwhelmed step back. (Was that crack an animal or something horrible?)

The boy frowned and then snorted with amusement.

"Seriously? You wanna do the introduction thing while we're in the middle of a zombie escape?"

Ryuuji felt himself puff up with indignation. "I think it's justified to want to know about a zombie that rescued me!"

The boy tilted his head, grinning all the wider and showing his sharp teeth. (And Ryuuji immediately felt bad for calling him a zombie.)

"Right, my bad. I'll remember to lead with an intro next time something wants to eat us."

Then, with a dramatic bow, "I'm Rin Okumura, princess."

It took Ryuuji a moment to realize the cocky bastard was calling him princess. He immediately scowled and glared.

“Ryuuji Suguro,” he growled and crossed his arms before stomping forward into the forest with no real idea of where he was going. He needed to run parallel to the fields they’d just run out of, but he wasn’t entirely sure where they were anymore. 

“Hey, don’t be like that!” Rin said with a laugh and chased after him. Ryuuji adjusted his speed to make it easier for the boy and would absolutely deny it if asked. “Where are you even going?”

“Kyoto.”

Rin stopped in momentary surprise before redoubling his speed. “No shit? I ain’t great with maps and things, but ain’t that really far?”

“You don’t gotta be great with maps to know that.” Ryuuji stuffed his hands in his pockets and forced his shoulders to stay squared and not curl forward in a protective ball like they wanted to. “The part I want to get to is about a hundred miles away.”

He was going to reach his temple again. He was going to see his people and the distance wasn’t about to stop him.

“That’s half of Japan!” 

“I’ve already come a hundred miles.”

(And he’d lost so many and hoped so desperately that he saw Konekomaru and Renzou again in Kyoto.)

“Half of Japan!” Rin declared and caught back up with a hop and a skip. Ryuuji eyed him, thoroughly confused how a zombie had so much energy. Positive energy at that.

Rin blushed at the look. “What? It’s cool.” 

“It’s walking,” Ryuuji said with a huff, amused despite himself. “Hardly cool.”

“Walking in a zombie apocalypse. Everything is cooler in a zombie apocalypse.”

Ryuuji stole a glance. That was unquestionably the zombie rash. 

“Uh, speaking of that…”

Was there a polite way to ask?  And if so, should he even bother to find it? He was already spending more time close to a zombie than was at all wise.

Rin’s eyes shot to him, and the red seemed more obvious in the darker lighting of the forest. 

“You wanna know about the zombie thing?”

“And the demon thing, if you’re telling.” 

Rin looked a bit surprised. “You can tell?” Then he snorted. “Guess everyone’s got a tempt taint now.”

“I had one before this… this.” 

Rin eyed him. “Yeah?”

“Yea—I was asking the question.” How had it turned on him?

Rin grinned. “I don’t know.” His grin grew at Ryuuji’s immediate frown. “Frustrating, ain’t it? I was running with my twin and we got jumped by this shitty classmate, and… Well, I got bit, Yuki — my twin — didn’t, and I ran off so he wouldn’t get infected by me. I got the fever and I got the rash and… Nothing. I don’t know why.”

He raised his hand, curling his fingers and tilting his hand back, drawing attention to his wrist. “I gotta pulse and everything. Still breathe normally, still warm, still think and stuff. Just… Got the rash and get sick if I eat. Which is bullshit.”

Ryuuji, glancing at Rin to make sure it was okay, leaned forward and pressed his fingers against Rin’s pulse.

It was thumping steadily under his fingers. 

Rin was a zombie, but he wasn’t. How? It wasn’t possible. Ryuuji had never found anything that had survived this dismal infection. One bite and it was all over. Like a tempt taint, there was no reversal for it. 

“How long ago was that?”

Rin’s brow scrunched up. “Shit, I don’t know. I wasn’t good at time when things were normal. A couple a weeks? A month at most?”

Ryuuji stepped back and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Where, uh, where you going?”

“I’m going to find my brother. He passed through here. I’m not sure where he was going.” 

“You…” He kicked awkwardly at the ground, not at all sure why he was doing this, but needing to all the same. “You could stick with me for a while? I’m heading to Kyoto as straight as I can make it, but there are a lot of towns between us and it. Good chance to find people.” 

[tonguetiedraven]

Piece I drew for an upcoming scene in one of my stories

[tonguetiedraven]

*smooch*

[tonguetiedraven]

Cooking for the boyfriend

[tonguetiedraven]

Cuddling for warmth (the flames help)

[tonguetiedraven]

Late night convos

[tonguetiedraven]

Fake dating BonRin? 😍❤️

This one is going to be a multiparter, because I've had an idea for a fake dating au for a while, and I can't seem to ever make a short story, lol. So here's the first part, which is mostly just set up ;)

Thanks for the ask! I hope that you enjoy the story <3

Caprizant

Part: one (you're here), two

— — — — —

“Ah,” Lewin lifted his head from the papers he was pretending to grade as they walked in the room. Which seemed strange, because Rin had heard Ryuuji gripe a lot about grading papers for Lewin, so he didn’t think Lewin actually graded anything. To hear Ryuuji tell it, Lewin just slapped a random grade on any paper Ryuuji didn’t go over. Ryuuji was the one that gave them their grades. He was more generous than most of Rin’s teachers, so he had no real complaints.

“Yes, sir?” Ryuuji asked politely at the same time Rin asked “What’s up?” He couldn’t manage polite around Lewin. The stink he put off always gave Rin an immediate headache, and the chapstick he’d rubbed under his nose could only block so much of it.

Lewin grinned in his toothy, kind of aggressive way. “How do you guys feel about doing a mission together?”

Rin’s gaze darted to Ryuuji, who thankfully also looked confused. This entire thing seemed a bit weird. They didn’t get asked about missions, they were assigned to them, and they’d done pretty much all of them together. Rin could only think of two or three times Ryuuji hadn’t been around, and most of those Rin wasn’t even supposed to be on. He’d just snuck after his twin.

Ryuuji answered before Rin could figure out how to answer the weird question. “Fine, sir? We’ve worked together before.”

Lewin barked out a quick and loud laugh. “Not like this.”

Rin gave Ryuuji another glance and was happy he looked just as concerned as he felt about that answer. Lewin’s excitement almost always ended in trouble for them.

“Not like what?”

Lewin motioned towards the desks in front of his own. “Sit down. This is gonna take a while.” Lewin waited until they were sitting before he continued. “Over the last month and a half, we’ve gotten fifty different complaints from students about a masked figure attacking them at night.”

“What?!” That was so many! That was at least one attack a day. How had they not heard about this?

“Yeah? Why ya sound so surprised? Crazy stuff happens on this campus all the time.”

“Excuse me, sir,” Ryuuji interrupted, looking irritated, “we might have a high level of demonic activity, but students aren’t typically accosted by masked figures.”

Yeah! This was a rich kid’s school. No one really knew about the Exorcist part. Wealthy people wouldn’t keep sending their kids here if they got hurt regularly.

Light shrugged like it didn’t really matter one way or the other to him. “The masked figure is tall, possibly taller than a human according to some of our witnesses, and thin. Despite its gangly appearance, it’s apparently capable of throwing a person through the air.”

How had they not heard about this? Who had gotten flung? That was terrifying.

“Do you know what kind of demon it is?” Ryuuji asked. He'd already filled half a page with notes, and Rin hadn't even noticed him pull out the notebook.

Light held up his hand to stop him. “I’m getting to that. Just hold on. Always gotta be so curious.” There was no bite in his tone. If anything, he looked fond. “The students being attacked were all in pairs. Groups of two only. Never any bigger than that. And specifically same sex pairs.”

Rin couldn’t help but notice that Ryuuji’s cheeks went a little pink. Had he missed something?

“They were all by themselves, and it was always late. In each case, one of them was laughing.”

This seemed like a weirdly specific list for a demon, but then again, most of the demons he’d met were pretty dang specific about what they liked.

“Sir,” Ryuuji interjected quickly, and yeah, there was no mistaking the blush on his cheeks, “what is it you’re wanting us to do?”

Light smiled, and it was far more frightening than it had any right to be. “Isn’t it obvious? You two are gonna date and get the Hannya’s attention.”

“Hannye?” Rin asked as Ryuuji spluttered out: “date?!”

“Yeah, date. Fake date. You know, undercover? And Hannya. A demon that feeds off of jealousy and creates it in others. You two are going to be a fake couple, attract the demon’s attention, and take it down. We’re not sure if it’s on its own, or if it’s being controlled by someone, so you can’t just randomly walk around the campus and hope it finds you.” He eyed them both. “The fake couple thing isn’t negotiable, so if you two say no, I’m asking Kamiki and Moriyama.”

Hell no! He wasn’t letting his friends be in danger. Not while he could stop it.

“I’m game,” he declared hotly.

“Uh, of course we’ll do it. Just…” Ryuuji swallowed and stared at the chalk board. “Everyone? Even our friends?”

Rin could feel his tail physically droop as a wave of shame hit him. He didn’t mind everyone thinking he was dating Ryuuji — why would he mind when Ryuuji was such a catch? — but that didn’t mean Ryuuji didn’t have a reputation as a hard-working and goal-oriented student who didn’t date. He was already hounded by other people’s unwanted affections everyday. Would it get worse if they thought he was actually open to dating people?

And Ryuuji might not be bi like him. Ryuuji might not even swing any way. Rin couldn’t really tell. He’d been shot down ages ago, and honestly, he’d just been giddy to have even one friendship at that time, so he just hadn’t pursued anything more because Ryuuji's friendship wasn't a thing he was game to risk.

Ryuuji also hated lying, and it wasn’t like Rin was all that much of a catch. He had cooking, and really, that was it. His unavoidable link to Satan more than canceled out any positives he might have with his cooking.

If everyone thought they were dating, that would kind of have to include their friends. Rin was fine with that, but that didn’t mean Ryuuji would be. Explaining afterwards would be messy too, unless they just pretended to break up?

“Yep,” Light drawled. “Unless you’re sure it’s not something the Illuminati are doing that Shima’s helping with.” Ryuuji immediately scowled and Light nodded like that finished the conversation for him. “Good. Then I’ll let you two go. I’ll text you a map of the campus with the most hit spots. You two go on a date or something in the mean time.” He motioned for the door, and the dismissal was obvious. Rin got up and left the room, far more confused than when he’d arrived.

Apparently he had a boyfriend now.

[tonguetiedraven]

Swap It Till You Make It

Summary: After fighting off the Impure Baron in Lightning's cursed Aria deck, Bon tries to free Rin, only for something to go horribly wrong.

Can they find their ways back into their own bodies? And can Bon keep quiet about his crush while they try? (Not if Lightning has anything to say about it.)

Part: One, two, three (you're here.), four

A/N: welcome back to another round of Bon gets his ass kicked by adhd, lol.

— — — — — — —

“Fuck,” Rin grumbled, and Bon agreed entirely. The girls had obviously spotted them, Shiemi was waving, and Izumo was sort of smiling.

Rin waved and Bon wanted to shove him into the bush for that. He never gave silly little waves like that. He’d raise his hand and nod, but he didn’t wave and that had to look weird. They weren’t supposed to let themselves be caught. Rin was giving the game away with what would have been a cute wave in this body, but – oh! He should wave.

Bon raised his hand and gave a very stiff and awkward wave. His uniform dragged uncomfortably against his skin and his entire body twitched. This shit sucked. It was cool out too and the breeze was tickling his nose. The wet clothes were uncomfortable before and now they were miserable. Why was the rustling of the leaves so loud? And holy shit, just how many leaves and trees were out here rustling? It sounded like an entire army of them—

“Hey!” Shiemi skipped up to his side and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug that had his entire body going rigid.

He didn’t often get hugged. His mother was the only one that ever tried, and he always put up a token resistance with her. (He had a reputation even if his mother’s hugs were incredible and warm.)

Shiemi was a lot shorter than him—or she would have been if he was actually in his body. This was closer to the proportions of him and his mother, and it was warm and soft, and her kimono didn’t scratch like his uniform.

Rin was staring at him with wide eyes. Bon blinked up at him, jolted, and promptly wrapped his arms back around Shiemi.

She smelled like dirt. Not in a bad way. Not like Lightning. She smelt like fresh earth and nature. Like lying in the forest and staring up at the sky through the leaves. Like digging for worms or climbing a tree. Had she always smelled like that?

“You okay?” Shiemi asked in a soft, curious voice.

That was when Bon realized he’d kind of buried his nose in her hair. His cheeks (and ears) promptly went pink and he jerked back.

“Yep!” He squeaked as his tail thrashed nervously behind him. How did Rin keep that thing wrapped around his chest?

“We, uh, had some trouble with Lightning,” Rin offered, wide eyed and obviously lying.

Izumo raised a round eyebrow. “Trouble? What’s he doing?”

Bon blinked. They needed an excuse.

Izumo smelled like rice. Like fresh rice. There was a hint of some kind of artificial flower on top – he’d noticed that before, it was her perfume – but the rice was new.

Man he was hungry. Rice sounded delicious. Ooh, curry. Or a curry bun. Did he have any snacks in his room? He couldn’t remember. There was a vending machine in the hall though. Did Rin have change? He could feel a wallet in his back pocket. Was it wrong to take Rin’s money if it was to feed his body?

Wait, if he was Rin he should just cook.

“A lot? He’s moving in and he has a lot of, uh, dangerous stuff. Just… just laying around. Some of it…” Rin frowned and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Kind of had an effect? Like an, uh, allergy!”

His nose was still itching from that miasma. Bon sneezed a bit absently and rubbed his nose. Shiemi had moved back to Izumo’s side at some point. When had that happened?

Focus! What the ever-loving hell was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just focus on one thing at a time? He was an aria! Focus was the one thing he excelled at!

The rustling seemed to get louder just to spite him. Still, with an astounding and exhausting amount of stubbornness, he pried his mouth open and forced a few words.

“Lightning had a book. I grabbed it and it shocked me. He’s…” how would Rin describe Lightning? “Bizarre.” Nope. That sounded wrong. He’d use some silly and colorful description. He was always coming up with (cute) analogies.

A song started running through his head with that thought. One he’d been listening to while studying with Rin the other day. The lyrics bounced around his head, getting louder and refusing to go away as he stared at Shiemi and Izumo and tried to think of a better story, only he couldn’t because the words were just bouncing around and making his heart twist and thump. It would be a love song.

“Yeah!” Rin said way too loudly and exuberantly for Bon. “It was that misery stuff.”

Izumo, frowning a little at the energy Rin was practically vibrating with, looked at Bon. “Misery?”

Misery? Unhappy? What the hell was Rin talking about? Yeah, this was weird, not miserable (at least not yet) but it would be if he had to take that test and the holy water was still itching and –

“Miasma.” He supplied as it clicked in his brain for some reason. “It was miasma.”

Rin nodded, and for absolutely no reason, reached over and took Bon’s hand (which he’d once again been drumming against his leg without noticing) in his own. Bon’s entire body went stiff and his tail froze in the air.

“Anyway,” Rin said, still too loudly, “I gotta get him back to my place and get him that, uh, antidote thingy. Lightning said to watch him. Might flame up or something. Uh, nice seeing you guys. Talk to ya later? Okay, bye!” And with that stream of nonsense, he dragged Bon away from the now gaping girls and towards the dorm at a full sprint. Bon followed after him, tripping on feet that didn’t feel right and trying not to think about how much those two were going to talk about Rin holding his hand.

Except they’d think it was him grabbing Rin’s hand, and now the rumors would never stop and they were going to talk about it and Rin was going to find out and Bon was going to combust. Or at least he would if it wasn’t for this damned holy water.

(And it wasn’t fair because he wanted to grab Rin’s hand--his proper hand, not this weird body swapped way of grabbing hands--but he hadn’t and now it was going to be something they thought he had done. All because he opened a chest with weird runes. Elder Futhark or Futhorc? Which kind was it? He should have taken another moment to look and see if he could decipher them. Maybe –)

“That was horrible!” Rin panted as they continued down the leaf strewn path. They crunched loudly under foot. He’d never noticed the crunching before. “Holy shit, we gotta look crazy!”

“Why did you grab my hand?” Bon demanded, blushing and still dealing with the love song playing in his head. (How could he make it go away?!)

“’Cause we needed to get out of there and you weren’t moving.” Rin laughed breathlessly, grinning and blushing himself. Bon had never looked at himself when he was blushing. His freckles were obvious when he was blushing, and the pink was spreading to his ears. Ugh. How embarrassing. “Also, you nerd, you knew it was miasma.”

“We were trapped in a castle of that shit for at least an hour! Of course I know what it is. Hell, my temple’s been fighting it for years. That’s why I almost wasn’t born. That shit got my mom and –“

“What?” Rin looked entirely horrified – it was another bizarre expression on his face – and stopped running. He used his grip on Bon to turn him around so they were facing and stepped too close. (Looking up at him was so weird and he could feel his tail flicking nervously behind himself. How did Rin control it?)

“What?” Bon parroted back. His free hand started to drum nervously against his leg.

“You almost died?”

“My mom almost died when she was pregnant with me. Father Fujimoto gave us the antidote? Miasma has been fucking with my temple for generations now.” It was because the Impure King’s body was sitting trapped in their temple. Who the fuck had thought it was a good idea to have the families live near that? Actually, who had trapped it there? Shouldn’t they have buried it a little further? Put a few more flames around it? Oh. That was probably why they had so many salamander contracts. Huh. But why—

Rin made an unhappy growly sound. It wasn’t quite right. Rin’s growls were typically actual growls, but this was too human for Rin. Still, it was unexpected enough to make him blink up at Rin.

“What’s… what’s wrong?”

Rin squeezed his hand and gave his head an angry shake. (Though, to be fair, it might have just been that his face looked angry and all his action did by default.)

“I should burned that bastard longer,” he grumbled, and for a moment, Bon could see fire in his eyes. Something angry and intense. Something that sent a strange burst of warmth through his own body. Rin was still holding his hand (he had a surprisingly strong grip) and he was furious about this. About Bon possibly dying (which he had already known, hadn’t he? Wasn’t that in the letter? Or had Rin not put the pieces together—agh! FOCUS!)

“It’s, uh… it’s over. I’m good. Well, I will be good. Once we, uh, figure this out.” He squeezed Rin’s hand and tried for a smile that felt a little odd. His teeth were too big and they poked at his lips as they moved. How did Rin deal with all of this?

Rin, with a darker blush (wow, he could turn as red as a tomato) glanced to the side and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Right,” he murmured in a shy tone. “Let’s, uh, get your stuff. My stuff?” He blinked and frowned. “The stuff.”

Bon nodded and felt his tail flicking curiously again as the song kept playing in his head.

They made it maybe five more feet before a voice was shouting in his head. “Rin!” Bon jumped, nearly tripping on his strange feet, and reeled around as the voice continued in his head. “I caught the — wait.” Kuro dropped in front of him, hackles rising on a low growl. “You’re not Rin.”

“Kuro?” Rin asked, frowning. “Can ya hear me, buddy?”

I have no idea what’s going on. Bon thought with another twist of worry in his gut.

[tonguetiedraven]

Swap It Till You Make It

Summary: After fighting off the Impure Baron in Lightning's cursed Aria deck, Bon tries to free Rin, only for something to go horribly wrong.

Can they find their ways back into their own bodies? And can Bon keep quiet about his crush while they try? (Not if Lightning has anything to say about it.)

Part: One, two, three, four, five, six (you're here.), seven

— — — — — — —

Yukio was leaving as they arrived at the dorm, and all he had to do was wave while Ryuuji smiled a beat too late and waved a bit too excitedly.

“I left your homework on the desk. Please finish it by Monday.”

Rin was not going to finish that homework, and he did not feel guilty about it. He figured body swapping should get you an excused absences.

“Yes, sensei.” Ryuuji’s eyes widened minutely after he spoke. Rin felt his own stomach drop. He had never called his twin sensei.

Yukio’s eyes narrowed in immediate annoyance. “Alright. Just for that I’ll expect an extra page on that report.” Yukio gave him a stern look, nodded politely to Rin, and left the room.

Ryuuji waited a second or two longer before groaning. “Shit. It just slipped out.”

“Yukio, Yuki, mole-face, or four-eyes. Never sensei. Though I’m gonna have to add that to my list ‘cause it pissed him off.” Rin clapped Ryuuji on the shoulder, marveling that he didn’t have to check his strength, and absently trying to blink away the growing bright spots.

“How have you not done your homework yet?”

“It sucks and I got other shit to do.” Rin squeezed Ryuuji’s shoulder, grinned at the familiar scowl on his face (he’d recognize that scowl as Ryuuji regardless of who was wearing it) and pushed past him to get inside. Kuro jumped down from his shoulder as he moved and dashed down the hall. Probably to tell Ukobach what had happened. They were both gossipy old demons.

Ryuuji followed after him. “Yeah, but it piles up and you’ll fall behind.”

“So?”

“Grades fall.” Ryuuji was silent for a beat as Rin led the way to the stairs. “I gotta get more notebooks.”

“Huh?”

“Highlighters too. Think the deli will still have any macaroni? Or, actually, I should probably do edamame. Gimme my wallet.”

“What?” Rin pulled the door to his room open and motioned for Ryuuji to go inside. At least he kept it mostly clean. He’d never had a lot of stuff to make it junky with.

Sure enough, there was a neat little pile of homework on his desk. Yuki had even gone to the trouble of putting his book next to it. Rin still wasn’t going to do it, but at least his twin was considerate.

He was a little embarrassed that he’d dumped his uniform on his bed and he hadn’t bothered to make the bed. Ryuuji’s clothes had all been neat and tidy.

“Does Kuro eat cat food?” Ryuuji asked as he made a beeline for the homework.

“What?” Did he switch topics this often? Ryuuji certainly didn’t. He was always focused on one thing at a time. Annoyingly so. “No? I mean, he probably could, but he doesn’t. He’s got too ‘refined’ a palate for that.”

“Mice,” Ryuuji muttered, thumbing through the papers. “Coal tars.”

Rin’s arm twitched a little as he went to his dresser. “What about ‘em? You see one?” He’d dusted yesterday and cleaned out all the coal tars. Not that it mattered much. There were a lot of damp and musty places for them to generate here. It was an endless struggle.

“No. Sinuses and stuff.”

Rin was so confused. Ryuuji had the book up now and was intently reading something and frowning as he did so. Whatever. At least he seemed happy. Ryuuji always got that thoughtful frown when he was lost in thought and even if it didn’t look quite right on Rin’s face, it was still that thoughtful frown.

Ignoring whatever Ryuuji was saying — he could make sense if he wanted attention — Rin turned back to his clothes and grabbed out enough for two days. He shouldn’t need more than that. He collected some underwear and socks too, being careful to grab the ones without any holes, and added that to his pile. Turning back to Ryuuji, he realized the studious boy was still rambling, and had been the entire time he’d been collecting clothes.

“—Which is weird because you’d think spearmint would be more effective since it’s also connected with anti-bacterial and has purifying properties, but they love that shit. It works against Naberius where peppermint doesn’t, but if you blend the two herbs, they both lose their potency and they’re basically rendered useless. It’s fascinating because you can blend it with anything else in the Lamiaceae family, and it’s fine. Like lavender! Which implies that—”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” His voice sounded low and gruff, still not quite like Ryuuji, but harsher than he meant it to. He wasn’t even sure why he sounded irritated. Rambling wasn’t a thing to be irritated about.

His vision was getting wonkier, and there was something wrong with his arm. It kept tingling like it had fallen asleep. Moving it didn’t fix the problem.

“Mints? Your report?” Ryuuji lifted the book like it was an answer. “You’re supposed to write about the properties of mint and the way they interact with coal tars. I figured I could do a page of it since I got ya stuck with the extra one.” He frowned as Rin tried to rotate his arm and get rid of the pins-and-needles sensation. “You okay?”

“No. Why is your vision all bright and blurry?”

All the blood drained from Ryuuji’s face, and flames flickered along his messy hair. (He should probably get a haircut when he got back to his own body.)

“Hey, calm down. It’s not—”

“Shit!” Ryuuji dropped the book and hurried across the space between them. He shoved his hand in Rin’s uniform pocket and pulled out a small bottle of pills. “Damn it. How long has it been going on?”

“The vision thing? Since I got here?”

Ryuuji grimaced and uncapped the bottle. “Shit, I — this isn’t going to — I’m so sorry.”

“What?”

Ryuuji pressed a small white pill into his palm. “Hold on. You gotta take this or it’s gonna get real bad.” Hurrying across the room, he pulled Yukio’s water bottle off the desk, gave it a shake to see if it had any water, and brought it back to Rin. “Swallow it!”

Rin did as ordered, ignoring the flames in Ryuuji’s hair and the bitter taste of the pill. Gagging a little, he wiped at his mouth and scowled. “What was—”

He did not get a chance to finish the statement before it became extremely obvious what the problem was. It was a thing he knew Ryuuji struggled with — it had happened a few times during their classes together and had always resulted in Ryuuji retreating and being quiet for a few days—but he’d never had one. He didn’t know there were warning signs to migraines.

It started with a sort of pulsing pain. Like when you raised an injury above your heart and you could feel each pulse and throb of your blood. Only this was in the front of his head, right above his eyebrows, and it was so much more intense. So much worse than it ever should be.

“Shit,” Ryuuji muttered, and his flames got brighter. Horribly bright. It was like each spot of light was a needle stabbing through his eyes and into his brain. He couldn’t say anything, he could just make a sort of ‘gah’ sound that didn’t begin to describe this agony.

Ryuuji shot across the room like a bullet, too quick to track, and slammed the lights off. He then darted back to the window and pulled the curtain’s close, cussing them out for being ‘too thin’ as he did so. He returned to Rin’s side a moment later and grabbed his hand.

“Come on,” Ryuuji coaxed him towards the bed, which was good because now aside from the spreading nauseating pain, his leg was kind of jerking sporadically and he wasn’t sure how he could keep standing but he couldn’t move with this pain searing through his head. “Shit, I’m so sorry,”

Ryuuji set him gently on the bed and kept murmuring that even as he pushed Rin onto his side. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with this. I’m sorry. Stupid broken body. Just keep breathing. I’m so sorry.”

It was, as much as Rin could understand and think through this horrifying pain, not Ryuuji’s fault. Migraines weren’t really anyone’s fault, and Rin was horrified about how often Ryuuji got these things. It was agony.

[tonguetiedraven]

Bonrin secret notes fluff?

A/N: Yes! This will be my... second? Secret Notes fic for these two <3 Also, I know that Japanese schools don’t have lockers. I don’t care. They do in this universe for reasons that will be obvious, lol.

Without further ado: Soon to be titled story (any suggestions?)

Fandom: Blue Exorcist/Ao No Exorcist

Pairing: Bon/Rin

Summary: Rin starts to find notes in his locker and assumes they're for his much more popular twin. (Hardly unreasonable since his feet are always covered in the notes falling out of Yukio's locker.)

Except they might not be for Yukio at all, which begs the question: who is leaving the notes?

Part: One, Two

------------

Rin’s locker had always been next to Yukio. No matter what grade or school they were in, they were side -by-side, and had been since they started. It was a benefit and disadvantage to having a twin. You kind of always shadowed each other in one way or another.

They didn’t have too many actual classes together, thankfully. Yukio always got put in the most advanced ones, while Rin was in the lowest ones.

True Cross wasn’t any different.

Well, it was in one way. Rin actually used this locker because he had to attend these classes. It meant he stopped by his locker a lot more, and by extension, he stopped by Yukio’s locker a lot more.

Yukio got a lot of notes. Like, a lot a lot. Ten notes was a slow day. There were typically dozens crammed into his locker, and they always fluttered down to the floor in an avalanche of gushy words whenever he opened the locker door. Yukio would exhale the weariest, and most ungrateful of breaths and pick them up only to discard them without ever reading the messages.

It was annoying. Rin never got any messages, he barely got hellos in the hall, and Yukio didn’t appreciate the notes he got. He could have his pick of people, and he chose solitude.

Oh well. At least Rin had friends here. It was significantly better than the bullies in Middle School, even if it would be nice to have someone that was more than a friend.

Rin eyed the mess on the floor. “You should hook a net or something to your slot. Catch ‘em all before they fall out.”

Yukio’s eyes shot to him in mild annoyance. “I tried that in middle school. It took up too much space and kept falling off.”

“Leave a note outside telling them to leave you alone? I’m getting tired of drowning in these things.” He kicked a few loose notes aside and entered his locker combination. He popped the lock, tugged his door open and jolted in surprise as a single slip of paper fell out of his locker and onto the floor.

Great. His class notes must have gotten loose. Which meant they’d be in even worse order now. Ugh.

He shoved Yukio’s notes aside and picked up the one he’d dropped. He straightened, and promptly realized this couldn’t be his. It was the annoyingly tiny college rule stuff. He liked the bigger spaces on his paper.

Scrawled across the front, in neat, if not a little cramped characters was:

[I like your smile.]

He blinked at it twice in confusion, and sighed when he realized what it had to be.

“Hurry up on that note, Yuki. Your admirers are getting our lockers confused now.”

“What?” Yukio grabbed a fistful of the notes and crumbled them up in annoyance. Rin shoved the note into Yukio’s hands and pulled his magic-circles notebook out.

“That. They’re attacking my space now. I don’t want your misplaced love notes.” He wanted his own love notes. He even had a few people he wouldn’t mind getting one from. There was no chance of it happening from them, one was much too shy and the other was out of his league, but hey, a halfling could dream.

He shut his locker, swung his bag back over his shoulder, and strolled off to his class. He passed Renzou and Ryuuji’s locker on the way and waved as his friends joined him for their afternoon cram classes.

“Think we’re gonna get to do something fun, or just a lecture?”

Ryuuji huffed out a gruff noise that was almost a laugh. “You saying lectures can’t be fun?”

Renzou shifted to Rin’s other side and shook his head mournfully. “Never mind him, Okumura. Bon actually likes school.”

Ryuuji scowled to try and cover the fact that he was blushing. “So what if I do? Why go to Cram School if you don’t want to learn the stuff?”

“See?” Renzou hummed while Rin tried not to laugh and stare at his friend’s pink cheeks. Ryuuji didn’t blush often, and it was always cute when he did. “He’s hopeless.”

“It isn’t like history or literature. You’re gonna need to know all of this to be an exorcist.”

Renzou wrinkled his nose. “Am not! Who needs to know the difference between a coaltar and a koks if the same verse kills ‘em either way? Or what the tahtiyum is if it doesn’t stop the demon? Who cares if it’s enlightening and it stopped some ancient demon that ain’t around now?”

“It’s the Te Deum, you moron, and it didn’t just wipe out an ancient demon. It’s one of the core death verses. Plus, it’s a vital part of several—” Ryuuji realized they were both staring at him and scowled as his blush darkened.

“Hopeless,” Renzou reiterated, and Rin could only laugh as Ryuuji punched his arm. If he couldn’t have love notes, at least he had this.

[tonguetiedraven]

Just boyfriends posing for a pic.

[tonguetiedraven]

Neat Notes and Messy Words

Fandom: Blue Exorcist/Ao No Exorcist

Pairing: Bon/Rin

Summary: Rin starts to find notes in his locker and assumes they're for his much more popular twin. (Hardly unreasonable since his feet are always covered in the notes falling out of Yukio's locker.)

Except they might not be for Yukio at all, which begs the question: who is leaving the notes?

Part: One, Two, Three

------------

The next day saw him once again kicking away Yukio’s flood of notes while he tried to get in his own locker.

“We should just move the trash can closer.”

Yukio’s expression made it abundantly clear that Rin’s idea was terrible. It seemed rude considering it was Rin’s feet that were currently covered in little bits of notes.

He grabbed the lock, twisted his combination in, and jerked it off. 

“I could possibly get a garbage bag and hold it under the door when I open it.” Yukio mused, and that didn’t really sound better than just dragging the trash can over. Maybe a little less noticeable.

“Just keep ‘em on your side.” He kicked them away again as he pulled his own locker open, and—

Another note? He pried it open and recognized the handwriting from yesterday. There was a little heart drawn in the corner that it looked like the author had tried to rip off but only gotten part of it.

[Your laugh makes my heart flutter.]

He read the words twice and tried to squash the immediate jealousy that unfurled in his stomach. Why couldn’t the note writer get the lockers right? He’d love to get notes like this, and all Yukio did was complain about them. Just look at the thought in this. It was short, it was sincere, and it made him think about someone else's gruff laugh and how much it made his own heart flutter.

Rin wanted to make hearts flutter (or a heart, he wasn’t greedy or anything) with his laugh. And whoever this was wanted Yukio to know that he had a great laugh. Yukio’s laugh was great, and he rarely did it. It was sweet and ugh, it was just mean to keep doing this.

“Someone really doesn’t get the locker system here.” Rin muttered,  folding the note — he couldn't find it in himself to crumple it, not with the half-torn heart and the message — and passed it to Yukio. “You gotta put up something to let them know you don’t want any messages.”

Yukio took it with a sigh. “How do you know it wasn’t meant for you?” 

Rin kicked away a few more notes. “Gee, I wonder why.” He grabbed up a handful and tossed them at Yukio’s face. “Write a note.”

Yukio batted the notes away with a scowl. “Why don’t you write a note,” he muttered as he crumpled the sweet note with the embarrassed heart, “if it’s bothering you.”

“Whatever.” Rin freed his sloppy notebook from his locker and shoved it in his bag along with an extra shirt for their demonology class. Light made it sound like it’d be messy today. He shut his locker and slammed the lock back in place before stomping off towards his class.

He was halfway there before he heard someone shouting. “Okumura! Oi! Wait up—”

Ryuuji jogged up to him with a neatly folded blue shirt in his hands. Rin’s shirt. Huh? Oh, he hadn’t shut his bag. It must have fallen out. 

“You lost this,” Ryuuji passed him the folded shirt — it was adorable and hilarious that he’d taken the time to fold it — and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Everything okay?”

Rin plastered a smile on his face. “Yeah! Just… arguing with Yukio. You know.” He set the shirt back in his bag and snapped it shut this time. “His love notes are taking over.”

“Oh, does he get them too?” Ryuuji immediately blushed, and Rin couldn’t even appreciate how cute it looked because damn it, everyone got love notes. And how could Rin compete with all of them? Even if he did get the nerve to actually write a note, anything he wrote to Ryuuji would just disappear in a flood of notes like Yukio’s.

Wow, what a depressing thought. 

“Yeah, all the time. They keep falling on me when he puts his books up.” 

“I just hooked a bag to my locker slot during Valentine’s day because it got out of hand.”

Rin beamed. “That’s what I told him to do!” Ha! Ryuuji-I-pull-all-straight-As had thought of the same thing. Take that world!

His tail wagged behind him, and Ryuuji was nice enough to not comment on it. Actually, he just smiled, which made Rin’s tail wag harder. It was an annoying cycle, but at least he got to walk to class with Ryuuji.

————————

It almost didn’t surprise him when a note fell out of his locker the next day. Rin knew he shouldn’t, but he still opened it up and read the neat, cramped words and let his heart flutter for a wild moment, pretending it actually was for him. He let himself imagine that someone had thought of him every morning and spent their school day trying to write the perfect note so they could drop it in his locker later. Maybe they were even hiding nearby to watch when he read it. Maybe they’d be excited to see him happy, and maybe his smile would make their heart flutter.

Or maybe they were too shy and they were as far away as they could get, worrying that he didn’t like it.

He even let himself imagine it was someone he knew, and someone that loved him.

Scanning the words had his heart fluttering in delight for an eager moment as he read the love note.

[There’s nothing quite as lovely as the color of your eyes. I’m always looking for it now.]

Oh! He blinked hard and immediately regretted reading and letting himself think it was for him. That hurt. It hurt a lot. Too much. The note wasn’t for him. It was for Yukio and his teal eyes. Not Rin and his demonic eyes. 

He folded the note up, set it in his locker, pulled out his falling-apart notebook, shoved his books in his bag, shut his locker, and pressed a piece of paper against it. He scrawled his own message in large, sloppy letters and tried to swallow away his emotions like Yukio was always doing. 

[Whoever is leaving the notes, this isn’t Yukio Okumura’s locker. He’s one over   -> ]

He taped it over his slot and ran to his class before anyone could see him. He didn’t feel like chatting today.