Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Exorcist

Mephisto sat smugly on the other side of the desk, eyeing Yukio and Shura. To Yukio, it seemed Mephisto was smug about everything. He always had that same grin. That same devilish grin. It always pissed Yukio off. But he never made it apparent. Mephisto could just keep doing whatever he does and Yukio wouldn't have a single problem with it.

Mephisto scooted forward in his chair a little, grinning even wider before he spoke. "Now, why are you here?"

You know why we're here, Yukio thought bitterly. Shura broke that stupid training machine and I'm getting the blame along with her.

"There was an accident with the training machine so Four-eyes and I were called down over here," Shura answered nonchalantly.

Yukio gritted his teeth. How could she be so carefree over this? Does she like getting in trouble?

Mephisto leaned over the desk. "I'm just going to make this short: you two are going to fix the training machine on top of your regular duties. And you're not going to get an ounce of extra pay for it, too."

Shura shrugged. "Fine."

"Yes, Mephisto," Yukio mumbled, too busy in his thoughts to give a better answer.

Mephisto dismissed them and they headed back to where the broken machine was. It laid on the floor, screws and bolts littering the floor around it. It was certainly a giant machine. The two both knew it was a pretty tough challenge to clean up.

Yukio grabbed a broom and started to sweep up the screws and bolts while Shura sat back and started to drink a can of beer. Yukio was about half way done before she finished. "Are you going to help me or not?" he grumbled.

"Why should I?" Shura replied.

"Because Mephisto said we both have to clean the mess up."

"Well, you already owe me; I pick now to be repaid."

"What?!" Yukio sputtered. "How do I 'owe' you?!"

"You know how many times I've saved your ass over the years?"

"Yeah, well, you know how many times I've saved your ass over the years?"

"None," Shura deadpanned.

Yukio tried desperately searching his memory for a time when he saved her. She was right; there were none.

Miserably, he continued cleaning up the scrap bits until they were all gone. He exhaled heavily before wiping his face. "I think that's all of them."

"Good." Shura got up from where she was sitting. "I need to get something in storage."

Yukio followed her as she walked down the hallways. At last, they reached a big, empty room There, huge boxes stacked up on top of each other all the way up to the ceiling. All sorts of ancient junk rested there, never to be taken out. It was the graveyard for everything at True Cross Academy that had lost its purpose.

Shura weaved her way through the pillars of boxes, occasionally stopping to pick something up before tossing it back on the ground. Yukio followed, nervously checking the towers' stability.

Shura finally bumped a fairly small tower of boxes. The two held their breath to see if it would fall. Nothing. The two exhaled softly in relief. Suddenly, the tower of boxes started to crumble. Shura managed to get out of the way for most of them, but failed to see the last box falling straight toward her. "Watch out!" Yukio yelled, shooting the box with his gun. The box fell to pieces, scattering all around them.

Shura turned around to look at him. "I could have avoided that by myself."

Yukio met her eyes cockily. "Mmhmm. And I can jump a building. Have I repaid you for all the times you saved my ass?"

"Not yet."

Yukio kept up as Shura still weaved through the throng of junk. Eventually, the two made it to the end of the room where a pile of boxes were laying around. Shura sat in the corner. "Look for a stapler for me!"

Yukio rolled his eyes and started leafing through the boxes. Junk, junk, more junk, junk. He gritted his teeth in frustration. It's been 2 hours already! Where's the freakin' stapler?

Shura giggled in the corner, drunk from the many cans of beers she had. "Can't find it, Four-eyes? Just look harder."

Yukio's nostrils flared quietly. She is so infuriating! Can't she ever just work? He soon forgot his internal rant as he pulled out the stapler.

Shura jumped up before almost falling down. "You found it!" she said woozily. "Let's head back and get it to Mephisto."

"What does Mephisto need with this stapler anyway? There are plenty of other ones just sitting around."

Shura paused for a moment, as if thinking deeply - but really, Yukio knew her train of thought was dulled from the alcohol. "Oh, yeah," she said. "This stapler's Mephisto's limited edition rare anime thing. Or something like that."

Yukio looked down and noticed the stapler was brightly colored with enough rainbow to put a unicorn to shame. It was decorated with a high-quality drawing of several anime characters doing certain things.

They headed back to Mephisto's office where he was petting his hamster. Yukio decided not to wonder why the hamster was green.

"So, what are you here for? I sent you to go fix that machine," Mephisto told them.

"Relax. We just found you your stapler. You know, that rare anime thing," Shura replied.

Mephisto's eyes practically sparkled. "Really?! Let me see it!" He studied the stapler carefully. "Why is there a long scratch running down the side?"

The two didn't know how to reply. Neither of them knew there was a scratch on it.

"Did you scratch it, Miss Kirigakure?" Mephisto asked, an irate look crossing his face.

Shura didn't know how to reply.

"It was me," Yukio found himself saying.

Mephisto directed his attention onto Yukio. "Well, to pay for the damage to the stapler, you won't get paid for a week."

Jeez, the stapler really cost that much? Yukio thought.

Mephisto kicked them out of his office before going back to whatever weird stuff he does all day.

Shura turned to face Yukio. "Thanks for the whole bailing me out thing, I guess."

"It's nothing. Anyway, is that enough to consider 'repayment'?"

"One more thing." Shura kissed him faster than he could follow. "Repaid," she whispered into his ear before walking away.

Fin