In the midst of rewriting one of my stories, I've been taking advantage of Netflix's selections. Aside from old shows that I could never watch on cable anymore, I've been watching anime, one of which was Blue Exorcist, which I've come to love despite it being a short series. I wanted to express my love for Blue Exorcist with a multi-chapter crossover with Disgaea, but a little oneshot about Daddy!Rin feels like it should suffice. As an important note, though, no mention of who the mother in this fic due to me not really having any idea about who to pair Rin up with, so imagine who you will or just think he met someone in the distant future after the series ended. I'm also not sure if Rin and Yukio are allowed or even capable of having kids because…y'know, what happened to their mother. Remember, I'm someone who's only watched the anime and doesn't even know how long the manga is.
Summary: For some reason, Rin's wife didn't think he could be left alone with their toddler son without anything bad happening, but he'd show her- Oh shit, where'd he go?! (Future fic featuring Daddy!Rin and son.)
Disclaimer: Blu Rose does not own the Blue Exorcist series. She'd have found a way to make the anime last a little longer. (Damn it, whyyyy?!)
X-X-X
"Hey. Did you forget something? …You just left and you're asking if the house is in ruins yet?!" Rin shouted down at the phone, glaring at the cellphone in his hand. If phones could feel, the poor mobile phone would probably be sweating bullets from the expression on his face—the complete opposite of the baby boy in his high chair, giggling and clapping his hands. "Huh? It was a joke? Well, I'm not laughing! You make it sound like I'm not a competent father! …Yeah, you better be sorry. …You left your wallet? Alright, I'll get it for you. See you in a sec." The dark-haired man pressed a button to end the conversation. He looked across the table from his little son. "Can you believe that, Kazuki-chan? Mommy has no fate in either one of us being good while she's gone." Baby Kazuki spoke baby nonsense, but Rin convinced himself that meant he was agreeing. He got up from the table, saying, "Exactly! So I'm gonna trust you to stay here and wait for Daddy to get back quickly, okay?"
After Rin left the kitchen, Kazuki began playing with his food. He started waving his plastic spoon around, splattering applesauce on the walls and floors. A car horn beeped outside and his father ran past holding a wallet, not noticing the mess his son was making. A few seconds later, Rin came back into the room and was greeted with a face-full of applesauce, followed by Kazuki's giggles.
"Ugh…!" Rin wiped the baby food off of his face and took a look around in shock. "What the h—!" He looked over at Kazuki, who looked like he was attempting to look innocent as he fed himself. "You little devil! How many times do you have to be told not to throw your food?" The half-demon took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "…It's okay. It's only applesauce. At least nothing's broken." He stretched his arms and got a determined look in his eye. "Alright! I'm gonna get to work cleaning this mess up!" Applesauce was immediately thrown at his face yet again. "…But maybe I'll finish feeding you first, and take away your ammunition."
Kazuki smiled and giggled before smearing some applesauce on his face.
X-X-X
After finishing up feeding Kazuki and getting him washed up, Rin placed his son inside of the playpen in the living room. Sometimes he thought his child looked too much like him with his dark hair and blue eyes, but maybe if he was lucky, the kid wouldn't be like Rin was when he was young. "There ya go. Now stay here and watch some TV while Daddy cleans up the mess in the kitchen. And please be good," he said, wagging a finger in front of the baby's face. Kazuki grabbed onto Rin's hand and started tugging at it. "I can't play right now." The baby started to pout. "Don't make that face. I promise we'll play together later." Kazuki still refused to let go. Rin sighed as he reached for the television remote with his free hand and turned the channel to a cartoon show. Almost immediately, Kazuki's eyes lit up and he let go of Rin, now staring at the TV. "Heh! Easy!" The dark-haired man got up and entered the kitchen.
On the television screen, a boy was playing with his dog. Kazuki looked down at the dog plush toy and picked it up. He started to wave the plushie around exuberantly with a smile.
Meanwhile, Rin was cleaning some applesauce off the wall when his cellphone went off in his pocket. He recognized the ringtone as his wife. "What could she be calling about now?" He reached into his pants pocket with one hand to answer the phone while continuing to clean the wall with the other hand. "Hey, honey. What's up now? …You want me to check and see if we have any? Alright." He put down the cloth and began searching the kitchen.
As Rin made an oral list of what they did and didn't need, the dog on the television performed acrobatic jumps and flips at the command of his boy master. Kazuki looked down at his dog plushie and gripped its felt collar before he tossed it to the side. The toy hit the wall of the playpen. Pouting, Kazuki picked up the plush toy again, and this time tossed it outside of the playpen. It somehow managed to land right side up on the coffee table in front of the TV.
"I think that's it. …Yeah, Kazuki' fine. …He's watching TV. …Just a cartoon. It's enough to keep him quiet while I do some cleaning." After a few seconds, Rin's eye twitched as he gripped the washcloth in his hand. "No, the house isn't in pieces yet and it won't be!" He shouted down at the phone. Once again, if phones had feelings, Rin's would've felt like it died twice that day. He huffed and frowned. "…I know it was a joke. I just didn't think it was funny! …You went shopping! What could happen by the time you got back? …Oh, yeah. Our son and I will start the apocalypse in our house, right after his nap."
As the exorcist continued speaking to his wife over the phone, his son began pushing at the wall of the playpen facing the coffee table. It rocked forward a few times, but always went back to sitting straight up. Kazuki made an irritated face as he stared at his dog plushie sitting on the table. With a little grunt, he pushed the playpen over and wound up sprawled out on the floor. Rather than crying, the dark-haired baby crawled over to the leg of the coffee table and stood up on shaky legs.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. See you later." He hung up the phone and resumed cleaning. "She really thinks I can't look after him by myself without something bad happening. She's just a worrywart mother. I mean, he hasn't caused any trouble since she left!" Rin paused for a few seconds before looking down at the applesauce he was cleaning up. "…Except for this. This is acceptable, because I can clean this up without her knowing what happened."
While his father continued talking to himself, Kazuki began dragging his stuffed dog along the coffee table as he made the closest thing he could to a dog's barks. Once again, the dog on TV jumped and Kazuki felt compelled to toss the doll away again. The boy toddled over to the door where it landed and suddenly took notice of the pet door that had been built for Kuro to go in or out when he pleased. Cooing in interest, Kazuki got on all fours and poked his head through the flap. He gave a squeal of delight as he saw the outdoors.
X-X-X
Minutes later, Rin left the kitchen smiling. "Okay, Kazuki-chan! Daddy's ready to…" He trailed off when he noticed the overturned playpen. "Oh, great. He's escaped." The father looked around the room. "Well, at least he hasn't broken anything." Yet. "Kazuki~! Come out, come out, wherever you are~!" Rin wasn't sure if a baby who was a year old understood the concept of hide and seek, but he decided to play along. He looked under the coffee table, behind the chairs, anywhere he was sure a baby could fit, but he had no luck in finding him. At that point, worry had set in. Time went by in a blur as he turned the house upside down searching for his son to no avail. "Where the hell could he be?!" He shouted. What if it was a demon or some sort of spirit? Rin wouldn't be able to live with himself if something like that happened while his back was turned. It was then that he noticed the door, or rather, the pet door. "Did he go outside through here? Shit!"
He ran out of the house and looked around in a panic. "Kazuki! KAZUKI!"
"Da!" That was Kazuki calling out to him. Rin looked around, trying to find the baby boy. "Daaaaa!" He finally looked up and noticed…that he was on the roof. "Daaaaa!" Kazuki waved his hands in the air, one of which held his stuffed dog.
Rin stared up, dumbfounded. "H-he's…on the roof…! He's on the roof?! How the hell did he get up there?!" He shouted loudly. He didn't notice how his reaction made his son giggle with glee. "Don't worry, Kazuki! I'll get you down!" He called out, more for himself than the giggling baby. Just then, something hit Rin on the head and landed at his feet. It was Kazuki's stuffed dog. The man looked up and saw the baby boy in time to see him falling towards him. A thousand curses went through Rin's mind as he raised his arms to catch the boy just in time to catch him. The exorcist gave a sigh of relief before he glared down at his son. "What the heck were you doing up there?! For that matter…how did you get up there?! We don't even have a ladder!"
Kazuki just smiled and began playing with Rin's face. "Da!" He giggled, completely ignoring the fact that he nearly gave his father a heart attack.
"Don't 'Da!' me! Do you know how terrified I was? I thought something happened to you! Don't ever do that again!" The baby's response was to give his father a sloppy kiss—or something close to it—on the cheek. All Rin could do was sigh as he bent over and picked up the dog plushie. "Well, until Mommy gets back home, I'm not gonna let you out of my sight, got it?" He handed the toy to the baby, who happily accepted.
X-X-X
Minutes later, Rin had managed to return the house to its proper state while making sure that Kazuki didn't escape from his playpen again. He had been entertaining the baby boy with a hand puppet when he heard a honk from outside. "Sounds like Mommy's home."
"Ma!" Kazuki exclaimed.
Rin smiled proudly. He couldn't wait to see the surprised expression on his wife's face when he told her that everything went smoothly. Of course, he'd conveniently forget to tell her what had happened when Kazuki got outside—better not to scare her or risk getting neutered for taking his eye off of the kid. He stood up and straightened out the wrinkles in his clothes as Kazuki threw his stuff dog out of the playpen once again. It flew across the room and hit a little flower pot on a table. It was somehow enough to force the pot to fall off the table, the pot shattering the instant it hit the floor and spilling its contents.
Rin stared down at the mess with a surprised expression. He heard the sound of the door opening and Kazuki calling out to her as he closed his eyes in sadness. "I was so close…damn."
X-X-X
This is the first and probably only Blue Exorcist story I'm gonna write, which is sad, because the entire time I was writing this oneshot, I was thinking about another oneshot or maybe some short, multi-chaptered thing. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I hope you take pity on me if you review. I've only watched the anime, so this story's probably not accurate in anyway, but I still enjoyed writing it.
(P.S.: Kazuki can mean several things, but I particularly like the meaning "harmonious hope".)