!UPDATE: The second half of this chapter has been rewritten!

Special Thanks to RisingSm0ke for beta'ing this edit!


I really miss writing about Rin's tail. I was wondering what was stopping me so BAM! *slams chapter down* this stuff happened.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rin's tail

Stop Working Already!:

Mephisto had grown bored of his work and was simply looking for an excuse- any excuse to get him out of the office. Really, he wasn't here for any other reason. Well, okay, maybe he was here to mess around and annoy a certain sleeping teen. Rin had been unconscious for a full week now and half-demon or not that was just too long for the trickster. He was getting antsy, wanted to see his plans get put in motion. He'd already given Yukio and his exwires the task of hunting Oriens on Monday and watching them had been pretty amusing for a time but now he'd grown tired of the ceaseless tension and arguing.

The students and their teacher were staying at the Western BDRI Branch, up by Sennyo Mountain in Yamanashi,and had made little progress so far in finding the demon sub-king. Even after telling the group that their demon had something more up his sleeve, a plan of his own set in motion by Rin's supposed death, and giving them a place to start, nothing had been found. Honestly, he expected more of the youngest Okumura- even if there was so little on Oriens from the beginning.

Sighing he refocused his attention and moved towards the older Okumura's room. He pointed a gloved finger at the knob and sang, "Eins, zwei, drei~" There was a click and the handle turned itself, swinging open and allowing him entrance. Immediately he heard the sound of a heart monitor and the wheeze of a breathing machine. It wasn't entirely necessary to had the latter anymore but the doctors here wanted to play it safe. And they'd turned the gas off a few days ago so his little half-brother should be waking up again soon.

But before then, there was something that had to be done.

Moving around to the side of the teenager's bed he snapped his fingers and a pink arm chair popped into existence. Whirling around with a swish of his cloak he sat himself down into the flamboyantly decorated chair hovering slightly off the ground- after all, what was the point of a chair if it couldn't hover? He did a little looming over his youngest brother, bobbing his head this way and that as he carefully examined his appearance.

He looked better than he had 6 days ago, but he was still pale and his eyes still appeared rather bruised. The bandages on his chest were not as thick as before and the sheen of sweat on his body had been cleaned off by an oh-so-lucky nurse. Periodically.

Mephisto looked forward to telling the teen how he'd needed someone- and a woman at that- to practically bathe him while he slept. What an expression that would warrant!

Smiling devilishly he returned his attention to the original reason for his coming here. There was not a person in the BDRI that could touch the teenager's tail at this point in time. A few attempts had been made but the last person who had dared to reach for it almost lost an arm. This meant the tail had not been properly groomed in over a week.

Kasei growled at him, his head resting on Rin's side across from the purple haired daemon. Any attempts made towards moving the hatchling all week had been thoroughly thwarted by his tantrums. As expected of a baby dragon.

The older demon tsked three times and lifted the sheets from his younger half-sibling, reaching for the blue appendage beneath. As a demon related to him, Mephisto found he was able to grab the appendage and bring it closer with little more than a few irate twitches. Amused by its weak flipping he brought the blue-black appendage out and above the sheets. A growl hummed in the back of Rin's throat and his smile widened.

"Eins, zwei, drei," he said again and a table appeared beside him. Placed on top of it was a bowl filled with some kind of foggy purple liquid with various bubbles floating around its surface like hundreds of miniature glass domes. It emitted a smell somewhere between watermelon and bubble gum, a combination that would surely bother the teen when he woke. Beside it there was another, bigger bowl filled with water and a fluffy, extra soft towel. A larger towel arrived in a puff of smoke beneath the healing half-demon's tail. At the same time , the sub-king's usual attire was replaced with a set of turquoise scrubs. Finally, a pair of latex gloves snapped over his fingers to complete the set.

A diabolical smile swept across his face. His eyes glowing in the shadow his hat cast over the roguish expression and Mephisto's manic grin spelled all kinds of mischief.

"Well then, let's begin, my littlest younger brother~"

Grabbing a pink wash cloth he set it in the heated bowl of water, soaking it, wringing it out a little, and then running it along Rin's tail to wet it. The teen shifted lightly in his sleep, his breath catching and chest tensing. Kasei growled again at his side, putting his paws beneath him should he need to pounce on the offending demon. In an attempt to make himself more threatening, the little one raised the scales along his spine and bared his teeth.

Fortunately these efforts had been rather fruitful the past week, scaring off multiple people.

Unfortunately for him, Mephisto was not a nurse.

The sight of his half-brother's discomfort made Mephisto smile wider; he was only doing this so he could tell the younger that he washed his tail for him when he woke up. (He told himself it wasn't because he was anxious or concerned in the least.)

Come to think of it, this was excellent blackmail material.

Another snap of his fingers and a few words brought forth a camera, hovering in the air over his shoulder and already filming the entire thing.

There, all set.

Pleased with himself the King of Time and Space set back to work, taking the cloth between the bowl and Rin's tail. Soon the water was getting foggy with blood and muck, passed from the eldest Okumura's appendage to the bowl of formerly-fresh-water. It took somewhat longer to completely soak the end of his little brother's tail but it didn't bother the demon sub-king. Rin's instinctive wriggling and frequent growls amused him. Meanwhile Kasei was only able to threaten an attack, his instincts keeping him from doing anything more. For a hatchling he definitely wasn't stupid.

"Come now, is that any way to repay your kind and wonderful aniki who's taken time out of his own schedule to care for you?" he sneered, tightening his hold on the flipping appendage and pressing his thumb into the bangle. Rin went still at this and even swallowed thickly, eyelids twitching.

Putting the hand towel in the bowl of water he lifted the limp tail up to give it a proper examination, now cleared of the blood obscuring it. The blue sheen that normally adorned it had faded to a dull, grimy and dry appearance. The tuft of fur at the end was matted and tangled. Mephisto frowned, it was a shame such a beautiful tail had been subject to so much mistreatment. Humans were really such vile creatures.

Pointing a finger at the bangle he uttered a few verses deriving from the same spell used to seal it in place. A sharp gasp of pain erupted from Rin and his fists tightened, shoulders pulling back, chest thrust out. His Adams apple bobbed as he pushed his head into the pillow, throat exposed and vulnerable. Kasei hissed and stood up again, little sparks pouring down and off his tongue where they disappeared before ever reaching the sheets. The black hatchling's usually dilated pupils had become mere slivers of black, the movements he made slow and measured.

Mephisto gave him no attention whatsoever.

"Oh my~" he exclaimed instead and looked the damage over more closely. The fur beneath the bangle was matted with sweat and blood, he could even see burn marks engraved into the skin. These marks were likely created more recently-probably this last week or so while Rin was asleep.

In reaction to the recently opened man-made Gehenna gate his demon's tail had probably been throwing sparks around rather frequently. To repress the demonic instinct the bangle would glow and smother the flame. Without this it was possible that the young demon might had woken up at night covered in his blue fire on several occasions- his control of it being what it was. Mephisto wondered if the teen could even begin to decipher the strange feeling echoing inside him because there was no way the bangle could completely repress such a strong sense. It was quite a bothersome feeling, even to the King of Time himself.

Why must humans be so foolish? They fear Gehenna and yet they devise methods of opening gates to it all on their own. Daemons didn't even had to try at this point. And hell, if it wasn't for that opening Oriens would never had escaped Gehenna in the first place!

Pushing these thoughts aside for later he picked up the wash cloth again and this time carefully dabbed the skin and fur. Rin hissesda nd arced his back a little, Kasei pining helplessly beside him.

From here Mephisto was actually moving gently, mopping carefully at the sores and observing tiny blisters with a strange look in his eye. The things the Vactican forced him to do to his brothers were almost enough to anger him. (Almost, he'd deny it if asked.) It took several minutes of careful work but he eventually had it sufficiently cleaned.

Putting the cloth away again he proceeded to dip his fingers into the bowl of purple liquid. He washed his gloved hands in the bubbly mixture before taking Rin's tail back up in his hands and sliding the soap through the fur. He worked his thumbs over the stalk, massaging the soap into his half-brother's sores and damaged hairs.

As he was working Rin began to calm- an effect of the particular soap he'd had Belial concoct. Gently rubbing it into the burns created by the bangle and feeling the bone beneath the skin, he listened carefully for any sounds of contentment coming from his patient. If it wasn't for his demon ears he would never had heard the faint purr in the back of his younger half-brother's throat.

A gleeful smile escaped him at the sound and he continued his efforts. This was yet another reason why he wasn't making Belial do this for him. The best part was that Rin had no idea that he was doing it even as it increased in volume. It'd been a very long time since his tail had been treated so well at the hands of another.

Mephisto decided that he really liked this soap.

Kasei, however, sniffed the air and decided that he did not like this soap. What was with that smell, anyway? Prowling forwards he moved down and crossed over Rin's legs, sidling up to the peculiarly scented tail. It was wrapped in tiny lavender colored bubbles that had been worked beneath the thin layer of short hair. His nostrils flared and he cringed back, putting his paw-claws over his sensitive nose and grunting in disapproval.

It took a few minutes but the green-eyed demon managed to untangle the knots in his half-brother's tail and soon enough he finished washing out the soap. Rinsed, washed, and dried the tail was once again gleaming a healthy blue. Satisfied with his work, Mephisto clapped his hands and all the items- chair excluded- disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kasei was still watching him pretty closely but seemed to finally accept that what he was doing was not to cause harm. Well, physically anyway.

Now the sub-king pulled a comb from his pocket and began working at the end of Rin's tail. As he combed through the last of the tangles he heard a small grunt and looked up.

Blinking rapidly and eyes hardly more than a needle-width open, Rin stared at him. There was confusion in his eyes laced by dozy exhaustion, like a teenager studying for a test he didn't know he had at 4 in the morning. It was at this point that the purple haired demon would admit it did take a lot of work on the revivees part as well as the reviver, so as frustrated as he was that Rin had been taking his sweet time recovering he did had half a right to be as exhausted as he was.

But only half. (He didn't care that Rin had been legally dead for almost 5 minutes. He was actually getting bored waiting for him to rouse.)

He set the comb down and folded his hands in his lap, smirking at the exwire, "come back to the world of the living yet?" he asked.

Rin managed to open his mouth a little and paused, like he expected his voice to come out of his mouth without any notable effort. Kind of like a speaker. He closed it when he realized his attempt wasn't working.

Mephisto watched as a small sigh escaped the eldest Okumura, no louder than the sound a summer breeze produced from a tree when it brushed through the branches. And for a while that's what the boy looked like as he slowly settled; an old oak tree relaxing in the wind. He certainly bore more weight and responsibility then most men who were twice his age ever had to. That weight had given the teenager an older shade to his vibrant cerulean eyes and Mephisto found himself almost fascinated by their depth.

His eyelids flickering as fast as a hummingbird could beat it's wings the teen gave in to the call of sleep, falling back into the dark abyss that had kept him consumed for the past 6 days.

Kasei plopped himself down on his guardian's pillow and shuffled his wings a bit, circling around a few times before settling in.

Examining his tail one last time Mephisto decided he had done a good enough job and stood up, chair disappearing behind him with a melodramatic poof., clothes returning to normal. He looked down at his slumbering half-brother, face tired but cleared of pain. The older demon expected great things from this one and he wouldn't let Rin disappoint him.

With that he turned and exited the room.


[Western Branch of the BDRI - 11:25PM]

[Yukio]

The cafeteria was rather large for the Western BDRI branch, the food at this sector known for its delicacy. Given that the people employed worked upwards of 20 straight hours of the day the least the order could do to show its appreciation was supply them with good food- which was a common courtesy offered at all four cardinal branches. While mostly known for its skill with technology and the flexibility that came with being located beside something as spastic as the infamous Sennyo Mountain the Western Branch was also known for the bulk of its staff. The cafeteria alone was about the size of a football field and who knew how many chefs worked behind the scenes with all that noise made through mealtime.

Scientists, doctors, exorcists, and maintenance workers mingled about off duty, chewing on various foods, chatting amongst each other, or sipping mugs of coffee as they went over a few files. They wove between the tuscan orders, shoes echoing on the linoleum floor. Given that it was smack dab in the middle of work hour the room wasn't as noisy as it had been a few hours prior. Still, there was the distant ring of kitchen utensils bumping and sliding against one another, the sizzle of a coffee maker, the scream of a teapot- all typical sounds in the cafeteria and usually quite soothing to the young prodigious teacher.

But not today.

Today, Yukio had his mind on other things.

He sat alone at an empty booth with papers strewn out across the table before him. A drained cup sat a few feet away from his left hand, lain on top sheaves of paper. He hadn't really paid attention to how much- or what- he ate as of recent but it wouldn't at all be surprising to find that most of his diet consisted of coffee.

Taking off his glasses he rubbed his eyes and set down his pen, grateful at least that he didn't have the exwires leaning over his shoulder. They'd been sent to their respective rooms some time ago to get some rest and he was appreciative of the privacy it gave him.

He sighed, chest and shoulders blooming outwards with the fullness of the intake before deflating on the exhale. His eyes stung, his head felt heavy, he was developing carpal tunnel in both hands, and his mind felt as though it was processing things at a snail's pace.

Resisting the urge to yawn he leaned back, feeling Kuro shift from his position tucked against his upper thigh, and looked over the sea of papers strewn across the tabletop. There were scattered articles, notes scrawled in margins and across sticky pads, news clippings stapled to online clauses, and books opened to various pages. Pens, pencils, erasers, a compass, and a map were among some of the other miscellaneous items he had in his present possession as well.

Although he knew it was because of his exhaustion Yukio felt that there was a fog clouding his brain and rubbed at his eyes again as though doing so might dispel the need for sleep. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Shura as she entered through the double doors across the room and made her way towards the little café tucked into a globular corner at the end of the low, 30ft long breakfast bar. It wasn't long before he effortlessly pushed her presence out of his mind and returned to his research.

Sighing for what could have been the hundredth time that day Yukio turned his head to gaze out the lancet window beside him. Rain streaked down the pane, droplets flecking the surface, gathering, and then sliding down. Like tiny rivers they streaked the glass and turned silver when merged together. In every drop he could see an inverted mirror of the world it reflected.

Yukio replaced his glasses and took in the waterlogged world beyond his window. Hibernating trees swung back and forth as though lifelessly in the wind. Maples still clinging to fall leaves danced and wove, abandoning reckless reds, oranges, purples, and browns to the thrashing winds while neighboring oaks still full of summer green and life flipped this way and that in confusion. Though December was approaching the wildlife at the base of the mountain remained ever untouched by the ways of the world.

For a long time Yukio simply stared out the window and watched nature paint its own picture. He tracked blurry reflections of people moving around the cafeteria, listened to the distant buzz of conversation.

It was all so mundane and relaxed. He wondered how people could just walk with so little concern, without so much as a single forethought to the tragedy in their own lives. How were people capable of such effortless happiness?

He blinked.

There was a new reflection in the glass- one that was less distinct than the others even despite being right beside him. It took Yukio perhaps a little too long to recognize the vague features of Rin's face in the window. Like a memory projected over the surface he moved in a familiar motion. Hair clipped back, brow not quite loose but not quite tight either, Rin turned to look at him with one hand raised to fiddle with the spare set of his brother's glasses that rested on his face. He had that smile on his face- the one that said he knew he was in trouble but didn't know how to deal with it.

"Oi, Spotty-Four-Eyes," Shura's voice was unwelcomingly loud and abrupt, harshly snapping him out of his painful daze. Kuro emitted a surprised squeak when he jolted rather unprofessionally, whirling around to see her standing at the end of the table with two cups in hand and a small brown pastry bag. Completely undeterred by the out-of-character behavior she met his gaze rather blandly, unimpressed, before wordlessly taking a seat across from him.

"Kirigakure-sensei," he greeted her, pushing his glasses back into place and reaching for his pen, "is there something I can help you with?"

In a rude gesture she scoffed, setting her cargo down on the pages, "Yar so useless I doubt yew could help a turtle find 'is shell." Yukio chose not to reply, clenching his jaw and deciding that he would try to ignore her intrusion. She sipped from her mug, noisily opening the paper bag as she peered at his notes. He didn't see her hold out a hand and offer the second cup- this one with green tea- until she was ripping the page he was reading right out from under his nose, saying rather irritably, "what are yew, blind and dumb?"

Yukio glared irritably at her, the thin threads of patience he had on reserve quickly snapping. He made no move to take the cup.

Shura returned his glare with equal strength, leaning one arm into the table and leaning over it to really drill him. When a minute had past and neither had come any closer to winning whatever battle they'd started her face contorted in a thick scowl and she huffed again. Leaning back she watched him with her arms folded across her chest.

"How long do yew think yew can keep this shit up, dumbass?" she demanded.

"I don't know what you mean," he replied, still unmoving.

"Like hell yew do!" she snapped, beating a palm against the table again, "it's been three days since yew slept last asshole and from the smell of ya I'd say it's been the same amount since yew're last shower too. Yew look like the shit I took this mornin' and smell even worse- it's disgusting! Take a damn break already!"

"I'm fine," Yukio said dismissively and reached for his computer, not failing to notice that most of his pens and pencils had already been taken, "I recommend you use your energy to focus on the mission."

Shura growled but made no move to snatch his computer. Yukio began to peruse his saved files on Oriens.

"If yew keep this up, Scardy-Cat-Four-Eyes, yew'll be pulled off the team and sent back to True Cross."

"I've told you that I'm fine, Kirigakure. I don't need you to look after me."

"That's a load of bull, Yukio. Yew can't even feed yerself right now so forget about tryna' work. Stop wasin' time pityin' yerself, geddoff yer ass, and quit being such a little shit! I swear, yer as boneheaded as Rin-"

The last thread of patience he had left snapped then and Yukio aggressively slammed his laptop shut, glaring with such spiteful malice as he cut her off that he could feel his own cheeks burn. He was so consumed he hadn't realized that he'd stood up.

"Given what happened when I left Okumura-kun in your care last I think I might be safer without your interference!" Rage bleeding into shock, Shura looked up at the younger exorcist like she truly didn't recognize who stood before her.

"'Okumura-kun'…?" she echoed, jaw firm, brows drawn down. Then she also stood, "He's yewr damn brother, Yukio!"

But Yukio just shook his head, eyes never leaving her face, and said, "No- no, he was my brother. But because you couldn't do a good enough job protecting him he's dead."

Shura's rage was near boiling and it took all her self-control not to unsheathe her blade and lunge into battle.

"Rin is dead because of you."

Shoulders and hands quivering, eyes trembling with mournful wrath, the hungry, sleep deprived, hurting teen turned on his heel and strode out of the cafeteria. He never gave the stunned and confused onlookers a second glance and never even thought to ensure that Kuro was following his lead.

Boom snap.