Chapter 3- I'm not gay!
"What?" Leo said blankly, unable to process what he was hearing.
Mephisto smile grew wider, clearly enjoying himself. "I said that you and Rin will become each other's mates."
"There's no way in hell I'm going to be dating that guy!" Rin yelled angrily as pointed at Leo.
"I agree with him, I'm not gay!" Leo shouted, wrenching himself from Mephisto's grip. He then paused, realizing that Rin had called him "that guy". "Hey! I'm not that bad!"
Mephisto's smiled turned into an almost manic leer, scaring both Rin and Leo. The demon headmaster sat at his desk and said, "Ah, but you both agreed to a trial run." He looked to Leo and continued. "The conditions and the oaths you swore were binding. What's more, Valdez-san, I have permission from your goddess to keep you here forever if you back down on your promise."
Rin and Leo both glanced at each other, wearing looks of horror, then turned to face Mephisto. "No way!" they protested in unison. They both blinked when they realized what they'd done, quickly facing away from each other.
Rin shook his head fiercely. "I am not doing this!"
"Oh Rin," Mephisto purred. "If you don't keep your word, I can always tell the Vatican that you refuse to complete your given assignment, meaning that you'll get little in the way of a trial before being executed."
Rin snapped his head back and looked to Mephisto. "You wouldn't dare," he growled.
"Oh, but my dear student, I do dare," Mephisto said, laughing as he leaned back in his chair. "This is an official assignment from True Cross that you must finish – unless you wish to be branded a traitor."
Leo's frowned in bewilderment. Was Rin a criminal or something? Great, Aphrodite hooked him me up with an absolutely marvelous date! he thought sarcastically.
"Fine!" Rin snapped, his voice quavering a little.
"Perfect! Now if you two will come over to my desk with your left hands out, I have something for you."
Reluctantly, both Leo and Rin walked to the demon's desk and held out their left hand. When Mephisto touched their hands three times with a count down from three in German, a ring materialized on their left ring fingers.
The teens looked confused as they held their hands out to study the different rings. Leo's was a silver band with blue etchings that seemed to constantly change shape. In the middle was a small, curricular blue orb that flickered like a fire.
Rin's was a bronze colored band with fierce gold etchings that also flickered and shifted. In the middle of his band was the same fiery orb but it was red instead.
"What is this?" Leo asked first.
"Those are the Promise Rings, something your goddess gave me," Mephisto explained. "The rings show that you have something in common; the very reason I brought Valdez-kun here in the first place."
"And what's that?" Rin asked.
Mephiso smiled as he placed a finger in front of his lips. "I can't say. You two will have to figure that out yourself. Now, the rings have some powers too. If you two aren't keeping your promise and refuse to bond, the gems will break and I will be informed. The rings also will shock you if you try to even flirt to someone other than each other."
"What?!" the boys complained. Rin instantly grabbed onto his ring and tried to rip it off, but he suddenly jolted as if he'd been struck by lightning. He yelped pain as his hair stuck up from the shock.
"And as you can see from Rin's demonstration, this is the kind of shock you will receive," Sir Pheles chuckled.
Leo grimaced worriedly as he looked down at his ring. What was Lady Aphrodite thinking? Clearly she derived some sort of sick pleasure from forcing two straight guys into a relationship.
"Now, Rin, Cram school should be over by now, so please show Leo to your dorms. After you choose a room, young Valdez, I'll send you some clothes that will fit someone of your, er, stature" the demon said. "You two are dismissed."
Rin growled slightly and stalked out of the office in a hurry. Not knowing what else to do, Leo followed the angry teen down the hallway. They walked in silence for a good ten minutes before Leo had to break the maddening silence.
"Sooooo, what's in that red bag over your shoulder?" Leo asked.
Rin glanced behind at Leo and then sighed. "A sword," Rin answered.
"Cool," Leo answered. He struggled to find something else to talk about, but they were finally at the dorm. Leo raised an eyebrow as he examined it – it looked like it belonged into a horror movie. Leo blinked when Rin walked up right to the door and opened it.
"You live in this place?!" Leo asked in shock.
Rin blinked a couple of times but then nodded. "Yeah, my brother and I do."
"You have a brother?" Leo asked as he followed inside.
"Yeah, his name is Yukio. He's my twin," Rin admitted.
"That's so cool!" Leo said, excitement growing. "Do you two have, like, twin powers or something? Can you read each other's minds? Oh, oh! Do you guys trick your teachers by sitting next to each other in classes and say "I'm not Rin, he is," and then he'll say "No, no, he's Rin"?"
Before Rin could answer the Latino, a voice called out. "Ni-san? What did Sir Pheles say? And who's that with you?"
Out from the kitchen area, a teen about Rin and Leo's age walked out. He had pale skin blemished by three distinct moles, two under his left eye and one on the right side of his lips. He had mousy brown hair and wore black rectangle glasses that hid its sea-green eyes. He was taller than Rin and wore a similar uniform to him.
Leo gasped and pointed at Yukio. "I thought you said you were twins?!"
"We are, but we're fraternal twins," Yukio answered hesitantly, a little startled by Leo's outburst.
"Huh, so non-identical. Then, are you the elder brother?" Leo asked.
Yukio shook his head. "No, I'm the younger one. Why do you ask?"
"Because you're taller than him," the Latino said, scratching his head.
Rin scowled. "So?" he said. "Anyway, you're the same age as me, but you're way shorter than I am."
Leo blinked in alarm. Next to the two brothers, he was certainly lacking in height. Well, I make up for it in good looks Leo concluded.
"Anyway, who is this?" Yukio asked his brother, nodding at Leo.
Leo looked confused while Rin sighed, the sound almost like a growl. "Yukio, this is Leo Valdez, my 'perfect mate'," Rin said sullenly.
"What?" Yukio said, stunned. "But, you're a guy, aren't you?"
"What do you mean, "aren't you?"" Leo snarled. "Can't you tell I'm a dude, four-eyes?"
"What is Sir Pheles up to?" Yukio asked Rin, a mix of confusion and anger in his voice.
Rin shrugged and sighed. "No idea. That clowny freak has finally lost it."
Yukio readjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. "There must be a mistake of some kind," he murmured to himself.
"You got that right" Rin muttered, Leo nodding in agreement,
"Well, if you're supposed to be Ni-san's… mate, then what demon are you?" Yukio enquired.
Leo blinked a couple of time. "Demon?" he asked. He frowned, not quite sure whether to be offended. The only diablo he knew of were some of the eviler monsters he encountered, and he certainly wasn't one of them.
"The clown said that he's not a demon," Rin explained.
Yukio looked slightly surprised, then sighed wearily. "I'll have to talk to Sir Pheles in the morning about this. I don't know why he chose a guy for Rin…" He trailed off, shaking his head.
Rin coughed awkwardly, keen to change the topic. "You must be hungry, let's go see what I can cook up for you." He hurried into the kitchen before Leo could answer.
A few hours later, and after Yukio was kind enough to show Leo around, dinner was served. Leo sat down across from Rin and Yukio and looked at the food warily.
"What's wrong?" Rin asked after he noticed the Leo was having trouble using his chop sticks.
"I've never eaten Chinese food with chop sticks before," the Latino admitted.
"It's not Chinese, it's Japanese," Yukio corrected. He looked to the kitchen and thought for a minute. "I think we might have some forks."
When Yukio left, Leo sighed and reached into his tool belt and began to work on his newest invention.
"What are you making?" Rin asked, peering at him curiously.
Leo looked at the bundle of wires in the Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold box. "I don't know, at least not yet" he answered with a shrug just as Yukio came back with a fork.
"Thanks," he said as he put the box of wires down onto the table and took an experimental bite out of the food. "Di immortals! Esto es muy bueno!" the Latino said in awe.
"What?" Rin said, exchanging confused looks with Yukio.
Leo realized that he switched to Spanish and so he translated it into Japanese. "This food is great!" he said with a grin.
"What language were you speaking?" Yukio asked.
"Greek and Spanish," Leo answered. "I grew up speaking Spanish and English. Since I have some Greek in me, I learned it too. The clown-looking man though did an enchantment so I can speak fluent Japanese now. Sugoi, ne?" he said with a smirk.
"Pretty cool," Rin said with a smile. "Hey, say something else in Spanish!"
"Otra cosa," Leo said with a smile.
"So cool," Rin beamed. "What did you say?"
"What you told me to," Leo chuckled.
Rin didn't seem to get it, his face scrunching up as he tried to figure it out.
Yukio sighed and said, "He said "something else" in Spanish Nii-san."
"I knew that," the elder twin proclaimed, and began to dig back into his food.
Leo laughed at that and the rest of the night was just like that.
