Briar Rose Syndrome

by TheBeingOfEverything

Someone wants to teach Samael some humility. That the form their lesson takes may just kill him is something Rin has an issue with. Roping in a reluctant Amaimon to help him track down the culprit and a cure, Rin begins his quest to wake Mephisto before his sleep becomes permanent.*A Sleeping Beauty AU*

4. The Road Through Fiery Perdition

Briar Rose Chapter 4: The Road Through Fiery Perdition

Summary: Over the river (of lava) and through the wood (full of demons) to grandmother's house (Iblis's kingdom) we go~ Rin and Amaimon have just realized something very important about how the journey to Iblis' is going to go: Rin is a trouble-magnet of the highest magnitude. It's almost a super-power at this point.

Notes: I think my favorite thing to read is characters forced to bond on long journeys spent overcoming trials and patching up each other's wounds (not that Rin or Amaimon will need to worry about that…sort of, yet ;D) and realizing they've come to care about each other more than anything else in the world by the end of the journey (romantic or not, you know, bc I love that found family trope too lol).

So basically what I'm getting at is Rin and Amaimon are gonna BOND this chapter :D

Song of the Chapter: Who are you Really by Mikky Ekko

---

He'd fallen unconscious from the strain of the travel through dimensions.

How… fragile.

Amaimon looked down at the still form of Rin Okumura, breathing deeply to take in the familiar scents of Gehenna. He caught the hint of other-worldly fire from Rin and frowned as it mixed with Samael's scent.

The fire-smell couldn't cover up that Samael was already beginning the degradation process, his powers to stall it failed with the curse. Now, the rot would set in like it did for all of them and Samael would decay at the rate he would have without his abilities.

Not as quickly as Lucifer, but he didn't have the luxury of time that Amaimon had with his host bodies, either.

Or that would be the case if that were the only problem they were dealing with.

The curse was speeding the process up, Amaimon grimaced, setting Samael down next to Rin so he could plan their route. He could have woken Rin, but he needed time to think about things without the inevitable deluge of naïve questions Rin would have upon waking.

Samael's healing would function as all of theirs did until the curse began using the draining reserves. Then the body would begin to fail in earnest.

Not for the first time since he'd found himself in this situation, Amaimon wished he'd forced himself to stay in Gehenna back then.

But…

There wasn't anything he could have changed by being there, anyway.

And his reason for leaving in the first place hadn't become any lesser in the following centuries- though the space away from the other Baal had given him time to come to terms with that reason, in the end.

He glared at Samael, despite knowing it was useless, because he couldn't do anything else. The messy fall of his bangs into his face made Amaimon scowl harder, flashing back to the utterly strange sight of the way Rin had been so careful in fixing them before the talk with Astaroth began.

What was Rin's connection to Samael? The last he'd seen of their interactions, it had seemed Rin behaved much like many humans did to Samael's ways- irritation, confusion, and wariness to the stronger predator in their midst.

Which Amaimon understood, worms should be afraid of their power, even while they lacked the senses to perceive it in its entirety.

But clearly there had been something he'd missed. Something important.

Rin was an unusual case, Amaimon was beginning to appreciate.

The only way to understand the other half of the equation was to observe Rin in action, which, Amaimon grimaced again, he'd have plenty of time to do.

The heat billowing out of the bubbling magma pool deep in a crevasse that bordered Iblis' domain blew into his eyes, dry wind making him blink back the tears it forced out in response.

Amaimon hadn't been there, when Assiah had formed- not in the way he was now, at least, but he imagined it looked much like the terrain Iblis favored. He carried the knowledge deep in the core of what made him what he was, the humans' certainty in his existence and the land that was their home allowing him to feel into every aspect of their world.

He would like to have been there, before everything, at the start of it all. But that was Samael's territory, not his.

That was Assiah, this was Gehenna, and much more dangerous.

They would have to avoid certain parts, Amaimon knew, where Iblis had her kin patrol, if they wanted to make it the rest of the way to her keep.

But the reason she didn't have them patrol every corner of her kingdom was because the dangers that lurked there more than made up for her lax guard.

He would be fighting at a handicap, too. Amaimon chewed at his clawed thumb as he paced around Rin and Samael's bodies, letting the dark ground beneath his boots crumble to sand and reform in irritated flexes of his power.

The necessity of making it through her territory without her notice was paramount. They couldn't afford to not take her by surprise, as much as she would be furious about that, never having been fond of unannounced visits.

If she had forewarning, she would have no choice but to alert Father or Lucifer and then their efforts really would be for nothing.

Destroying something wouldn't change that fact, Amaimon knew, but it would make him feel better. He let out a long sigh instead, restraining himself, because he would have plenty of time to take out his frustrations on the challenges ahead.

Now, to wake Rin- Amaimon squinted down at him- and begin answering questions.

Well, Amaimon felt amusement bubble in his chest until it made his lips twitch, he would get to enjoy the shock his waking would cause, in any case.

He snapped his fingers and Rin blinked his eyes open.

---

Rin came awake with sudden awareness and the echoes of a snap in his ears, blinking to clear the haze from his eyes as he tried to figure out why he'd been asleep in the first place.

Only to come face to sleeping face with Mephisto an inch away.

A strangled sound made it past his lips and a confused flush rose to his cheeks as he scrambled away, barely registering the hard surface scraping his palms.

His mind flashed back to the last time he'd woken like that when Shiemi had decided waiting for him to wake up after the Impure King mission by laying across from him, watching him, was a good idea for his sleep addled brain.

Why did these things keep happening to him?

"Did you sleep well, Rin?"

The guileless question had Rin jerking his head around to glare at the owner of the voice, because no way did Amaimon not know what he was doing.

"What happened, why was I knocked out, and-" Rin sucked in a breath, eyes narrowing as his stream of demands for answers made Amaimon's mouth stretch further. The bastard had definitely been anticipating his reaction, "-and why the hell did you put Mephisto right there next to me, dammit!"

A sucker appeared in another snap of Amaimon's fingers and he popped it into his mouth, fangs clacking against it as he lost the attempts to keep a smirk off his face, "you're not very good with spatial awareness, are you?"

Of course the bastard answered with another question, Rin crossed his arms where he sat, "space-what awareness?"

Then the sounds of his environment trickled in and Rin realized what Amaimon might have been talking about.

Heat that had been an insistent presence since he'd woken up finally had Rin looking around for a source.

And then he saw… hell?

Molten lava seeping through worn grooves in the ground to disappear into a deep crevasse greeted his eyes while the horizon was broken up by sharp juts of black stone until it made a pseudo-forest of spines.

Their location was on the outer edges of the start of the flat ground that surrounded the plane of spires. A purple miasma seemed to hover insistently in the air, drifting in eddies of hot wind and making it difficult to see into the stretch of land opposite the magma spires.

All of which was ringed in a deep scar, dark flame making strange shadows on the equally as dark walls that faded to pools of magma down below.

"Uh," he mumbled, edging back towards Mephisto and away from the fiery pit he'd inadvertently neared in his panicked awakening. Rin didn't stop until he'd reached the newly rumpled and dirtied cape where it surrounded Mephisto on the ground.

Amaimon wouldn't let Mephisto lay anywhere too dangerous right? Which meant the ledge they were on was probably not going to crumble into the magma any moment, or at least he could grab onto Mephisto so Amaimon would have no choice but to rescue him, too.

Also, Rin scowled up at Amaimon, who was still playing with the sucker in his mouth and watching Rin with amusement flashing in his eyes and definitely not being helpful. "Where are we, Amaimon?"

"Did you lose your memory?" Amaimon said, cocking hip and resting a hand there, "we're in Gehenna now."

"I know that!" Rin fumed at the deliberate obtuseness, "where in Gehenna?"

He was forced to tilt his head back as Amaimon came towards him and, when it didn't look like he would stop, Rin rose to his feet before he could close the distance anymore. He didn't need his throat getting assaulted again if Amaimon decided baring it was an invitation.

"We're at the edge of Iblis, King of Fire and fourth in Gehenna's, domain," Amaimon said. The more serious tone of his voice had Rin tensing, though it went unnoticed as Amaimon lifted Mephisto over his shoulder again, cleaning the dust with a snap. Though, before he did, he glanced Rin's way, an unreadable expression replacing the mocking one he'd worn earlier.

That he'd made the small effort- remembering the unease Rin felt at Mephisto being out of sorts, brought a small smile to Rin's face, the gratitude at the gesture surprising him with its appearance.

Maybe not a complete bastard, then.

Amaimon's brows drew together when he saw the smile, turning away from Rin to stare across the ravine.

"We have to make it through without alerting her patrols," he said while Rin came up beside him to try to get a better look at where they'd be headed.

"So," Rin glanced at Amaimon from the corner of his eyes, wondering at the way he tucked the teasing, almost playful, side of himself away so quickly, "do you know a way through?"

"Er, wait," Rin interrupted before Amaimon could answer, "why don't we just teleport like we did earlier?"

That got a grunt out of Amaimon, eyes narrowing at his surroundings, "Iblis is stronger than me, her wards that surround her kingdom would incinerate my host body if I tried."

"Wards?" Rin mumbled, then yelped as Amaimon leapt over the ravine without another word and he had to scramble to follow.

He caught a glimpse of the magma, glowing with a dark, almost purple hue, deep below him as he made it over and shivered to think of falling in it.

Would his blue flames protect him from other fires? Rin had no idea and wasn't interested in testing it in Gehenna.

Then it was just general foreboding following at his heels as he trailed after Amaimon.

Another curl of purple miasma parted under his hand as they moved further into the forest of spires- it was kinda cool, being somewhere so surreal, Rin decided.

Mephisto's hair, once again moving with every step from Amaimon, became Rin's center focus as he fell into place behind them.

Not for lack of trying. The otherworldly sounds echoing and bouncing around between the spires had Rin's ears twitching, on high alert, unable to recognize what might be something about to leap out and attack, or just the wind.

But, inevitably, his gaze would swing back to the middle, and there would be Amaimon's back and glimpses of Mephisto's sleeping face whenever he shifted.

Maybe it was time to ask about what was up with that Iblis demon and the other one, Eg-something, that Amaimon had brushed off with Astaroth?

A grimace tugged at Rin's lips. Yukio always told him he couldn't read a room well and he had seen the tip of what was probably a very, very deep iceberg earlier.

Normally he'd jump right into being a nuisance- once again, Yukio's words, not his- but he'd never been so out of his comfort zone before, either.

Rin shook his head. What was he doing? Just earlier he'd determined to ask as many questions as possible because his and Mephisto's lives depended on him not being his typical clueless self.

"Hey, uh, is there anything I should know about Iblis and that other guy we might have to go to?"

His question joined the echoes, surreal when they came back to him and making Rin wince at how loud it was. Maybe that was what caused the tensing in Amaimon's back, but Rin couldn't stop the suspicion that it had been his words that did it instead.

Gold flickered as Amaimon glanced at Rin from the corner of his eye before Rin stared at the back of his head again.

"Iblis sides with Father and Lucifer," Amaimon finally spoke, voice coming clear over the still air between them, but heavy with the weight of his revelation. "But, she'll give us the same leniency Astaroth did."

"Really? Why?" Rin blurted, still very confused about the interpersonal relationships between the kings and how they could be on opposite sides but still somehow get along like they weren't technically fighting.

Another long pause from Amaimon.

"She doesn't always get along with Egyn either," he said, voice bare of emotion, as if his words actually gave Rin any clarity about his original question.

Rock shifted, or something shifted against the rocks.

Where? It was hard to pinpoint when sound warped amongst the spires.

Amaimon stopped, ears twitching and body on an alert that prompted Rin into hunching in preparation for an attack.

"Rin-" Amaimon turned, Rin's name on his lips in low warning. His eyes widened when their gazes met.

He moved before he his mind caught up with his body, palms scraping over the black shards that made up the ground and breath leaving in a whoosh when his chest met soon after.

Rin hadn't dodged.

He'd been pushed down.

Obsidian sliced into his cheek when the impact of a body threw more shards outward faster than Rin could track. Screeching at heart stopping volumes sent adrenaline shooting through Rin's veins and froze him in place where he lay.

The black dust tossed up swirled with movement Rin felt but couldn't see, only the vaguest suggestion of shapes darkened his already dim view.

Then the dust parted, a dusky red blur launched from the center into one of the spires to crack a deep line down the middle, mirroring the snap of bones in whatever the creature, now silent and still, had in its body.

Chittering screeches came from the cloud from what must have been another of the creatures Amaimon fought.

Rin scrambled to his feet, searching for an opening to help, even if he only had his claws.

He didn't get the chance, head jerking to the side.

Something large shook the earth from beyond the crown of spires, sending Rin's heart pounding as he readied himself for what moved towards their position.

Another splintering crack threw black shards into the temporary arena the battle zone had become and Rin ducked low to avoid getting any slivers in his eyes.

Moving stone set with a spider-web of red, glowing cracks sent spires crashing to the ground as a behemoth of a creature roared deep enough to shake Rin's bones and set his fangs elongating in his mouth in automatic defense.

How the hell was he supposed to fight a giant rock? Suddenly his claws seemed so weak and not up to the task.

The creature caught sight of him- however that worked when it didn't seem to have eyes- it didn't matter, Rin had to move.

A leg the size of Kuro after he'd grown into his larger form swept towards him, forcing Rin to roll beneath it in a desperate dodge, his body bouncing when the leg hit the ground before he could scrabble out from the underside to relative safety.

It struck faster than Rin thought possible- and faster than he could react, too.

Solid stone slammed to his stomach and Rin heard a crack, felt something break inside, and stopped breathing- couldn't breathe even if he'd wanted to, in-fact.

"Ah-!" His weak cry cut off, agony lancing through him while his vision spun and blood hit the back of his teeth with the involuntary gagging that erupted until he flew, stunned, at the apex of the swing to a far outcropping.

More black dust billowed up around his fallen body, blocking his view of the demon, though he heard it approaching, honing in.

Have to get up- can't keep getting my ass handed to me!

He rose, a thick string of blood dripping from his lips as he clutched his healing middle and crouched low in preparation of doing...something, he'd think of it when the time came.

Rumbling like a rockslide coming towards him sent him into a readied stillness, claws flexing even though he knew they'd have even less than an effect. His heartbeat slowed, flame building under his skin as if begging to be released from the sword strapped to his back and a pounding began at the back of his skull.

The dust swirled in a stray wind and he gasped, heart pounding against his ribs at the sight of the demon barreling straight towards him with no sign of slowing or changing course.

But he stood his ground, fist clenching and preparing for the impact. He'd taken a punch from Amaimon, whatever this demon could throw couldn't compare.

Snarling from bared fangs, Rin braced himself-

-Maroon and white blocked his view, a lithe form appearing in front of him for a second before vanishing like an after-image to re-form steps from the charging demon.

Amaimon lashed out, a single punch thrown from reptilian arms that had replaced his human ones to hit the center-mass without a moment's hesitation.

A percussive blast crumpled the shell of the massive demon like a tin can until the inner glow cut off and it fell in a wave of dust and shaking earth.

Rin blinked, a rapid flutter of lashes as tears from the debris tossed into his face forced them out. But also because watching Amaimon so effortlessly demolish something that once would have given Rin serious pause- still did, without his sword or flames to back him up- was just… really…

He didn't get time to complete the thought.

Pain bit into his side, a blinding flash that tackled him forward until he hit the ground and gagged, instincts pushing him to twist and latch his claws into whatever had attacked him before heaving to get some space so he could figure out what that hell that had been.

Eyes like red glass rolled to focus on him from the creature that resolved itself into something like a slimy lizard. Except this lizard was on fire and coming for him again with a hiss that sounded more like steam escaping a crack than any sound that should be coming from a mouth.

Amaimon landed on the creature's back and Rin could only watch as he struck with black claws straight through the head of the writhing demon even as its defensive flames seared his skin from his body.

Writhing struggles eventually faded into twitches as the final death throes ran their course and life faded until the creature lay limp in death.

The area echoed in the sudden silence.

It was over.

Standing from his crouch, Amaimon cleaned the steaming lizard-thing's blood from his claws with a short flick, brows drawn as he considered the body, then spoke as if to himself, "they shouldn't be this far out of their territory, she's changed her patrol formations, something's wrong."

His reptilian claws faded back to the more human-shaped hands in another fluid motion.

Gold eyes snapped to Rin and a downward twitch of Amaimon's lips had him drawing up where he'd still been in his curled position on the now ravaged ground.

"What is wrong with you?" Rin's pulse jumped at the question, eyes widening at the expectant brow raised at him from Amaimon.

"What?" He rasped out, coughing to get the rest of the blood from his now healed lungs as he stood.

Amaimon flicked his hands in a vague gesture to their surroundings, Mephisto still held over his shoulder and now looking wind-ruffled and covered in the dust churned up during the fight.

"Were you trying to die?" The cocked head and slightly mocking tone had Rin bristling in embarrassment.

"No! I just- I usually use my flames or my sword against things that big and-" Rin crossed his arms, unable to come up with a defense to Amaimon's judgement.

"You attacked me without your sword," Amaimon said, pointed and mirroring Rin's pose, arm crossing with the other over the backs of Mephisto's knees.

"Seriously? You're not made of literal rocks." Rin scowled, not liking the way Amaimon looked at him like he was stupid. Like he was weak. He grit his teeth together.

That gave Amaimon pause, but, by the way he seemed like he was chewing something over, Rin suspected it wasn't because he suddenly decided Rin had made a good point.

"You don't know how to fight, do you." It was a question, but it sounded like a statement.

"It's not like I ever got formal lessons or anything," Rin admitted, much as it rankled him, sighing and ruffling his tangled hair, "just street brawls and a couple sword lessons from Shura."

"You don't know how to fight," Amaimon said as if in confirmation, another sigh on his tongue and eyelids shuttering as if asking for patience.

"Whatever, I'm a hands-on learner," Rin said, growling, "I won't freeze next time."

Amaimon hummed, showing how much he believed Rin. But, before Rin could snap something back, he turned, snapped to clear the signs of the fight from Mephisto, and started walking again, "you're weak without your flames- and untrained."

Rin narrowed his eyes, hackles rising at being called weak as he stalked after Amaimon.

It wasn't like Amaimon had any room to talk. He'd just thrown a punch. Rin's lips twisted further, mentally correcting that statement. He'd thrown a punch that stopped a beast the size of a house and hadn't even looked winded after.

He knew he was strong, could remember facing him at the amusement park and again in the forest before he'd fallen to his instincts, and the ultimate culmination of his power where Amaimon had nearly done to him what he'd just done to the giant stone demon. But to see another glimpse of it had Rin wondering if he'd ever stood a chance in their fights at all.

Thinking about it, he came to the same conclusion he had after the last fight they'd been in, which was that no, as he was, he most definitely couldn't stand up to Amaimon when he fought seriously.

Well, there was only one way that was going to change. Rin lengthened his strides until he caught up to Amaimon and met the blank expression with a determined one of his own.

"Teach me to fight."

His words had an immediate effect, Amaimon twitched, head swinging to face him more and brows raising. Rin saw the look and opened his mouth to argue his case.

"Okay."

"What, really?" Rin blurted out, not expecting Amaimon to agree so easily.

There was a gleam in Amaimon's eyes as his mouth stretched into a grin, "yes, really."

That almost made the glare reform on Rin, not liking the obvious teasing from Amaimon, but then he realized why he'd expected a harder time convincing him to teach him and felt his mood sour.

Yukio had never made it easy for him to get any kind of physical training, sticking him with the flame training with Shura that made Rin's temper spike from the lack of progress until he felt as likely to have a meltdown as the candles had.

Or he was stuck with the boring training with the rest of his friends that didn't really ever exert him, always leaving him feeling too wound up by the end of it with no way to blow off steam after.

Even the few missions he'd been able to go on never really made him feel like he had pushed himself to the limit. Especially before, when he'd had to hide his demonic side from his friends. But, even once they'd learned about his heritage, the only time he'd been able to go all out had been fighting the Impure King and…

Rin shot a glance at Amaimon, his heart skipping for a reason he couldn't place.

The only other time he'd gotten to unleash his flames without concern for keeping them contained had been with Amaimon. He couldn't remember much from that night in the forest, just the heady power in his veins and the fury he'd directed at the one who'd dared challenge him- who'd dared attack what was his- though it all whirled into one confused mess of instincts and kaleidoscope images once he'd gone berserk.

And now Amaimon had just promised him a chance to reach that level of effort again. He hadn't realized it until the buzz of the trial had left him, but after the forest fight he'd been satisfied in a way he'd never felt before. The ache in his limbs and weakness in his body from the energy exertion making sleep come easy, despite the anxiety over what his friends would think after the reveal.

It had been freeing, coming clean like that, of getting to relieve some of the ache of holding back in a too tight skin. Of pretending to be something he wasn't.

He wanted that relief again and realized he'd be getting possibly more than enough if they kept getting attacked like they had.

At least he'd been able to settle that, but something else niggled at his mind.

"Hey, what were you saying before, when you killed the lizard thing?" Rin asked.

"Salamander," Amaimon said, and it took Rin a moment to realize he was correcting his terminology, not calling him a salamander, whatever that was.

"Yeah, that, what were you saying about it?" Rin said with the correction.

Amaimon's expression never changed from the bored one he favored Rin with, mouth moving like he was tonguing his teeth beneath his lips until he spoke, "I don't know yet. It could mean nothing, it could mean word has already reached Iblis."

"Er, isn't that bad?" Rin tried for calm, once again totally lost as to why the other demon kings- the ones on Satan's side that wanted to kidnap him- knowing they were on their way wasn't something to panic about.

Still nothing. Rin wanted to shake him until he got a reaction.

"Only if it gets back to Father," Amaimon said, shrugging as if he was talking about a normal family where news traveling the grapevine was about a sibling getting a new pet, not whatever the hell they actually were.

"Are you as slow at running as you are in a fight?"

"Hey!" Rin growled at the insult, though Amaimon just looked at him expectantly. Rin had the sudden realization that he would be enjoying having Amaimon teach him to fight, if only to get a chance to pay him back all the teasing remarks.

"I can run just fine," he said, already feeling his muscles tense in preparation.

Another shrug. "If you say so. Let's go."

Rin had a moment to react after hearing Amaimon, bolting along behind the vague after-image and pulse picking up with the shot of adrenaline that hit. Amaimon wasn't moving at the pace of a human, wasn't even pretending to.

A grin stretched its way onto Rin's face. He darted forward, quickly finding his legs beneath himself and catching up to Amaimon, getting a glimpse over the shoulder before he returned to guiding them.

His mind went to those first few weeks at the Academy where he'd had to hide his demonic nature from his friends. Even keeping to slightly faster than Bon during their runs around the leaper cages had been hard, his blood pounding in his veins and muscles telling him he could go so much faster if he just let go.

Now, he got the feeling that Amaimon was testing him to see if he could keep up. Something in him was only too happy to show that he could.

Half his attention stayed on the black spires they dodged around. Rin knew running face-first into one of them- besides being completely embarrassing to do in front of Amaimon- would not be fun to recover from.

The other half let the joy of physical exertion take over, body instinctively falling into a rhythm, knowing he was in it for the long haul, since who knew how far they had to go yet. Well, Amaimon did but he doubted he wanted to stop just to answer another question from Rin.

Misma parted before him while shards shifted every time he touched down, the precarious steps heightening his awareness as he battled against slipping with the force of his impact.

Amaimon zig-zagged through the spires and Rin followed the tatters of his coat, sparing a brief thought about whether they'd see any more demons and determining to not be so useless the next time they saw any.

Their journey continued, silent except for the wind cutting past his ears and whipping the strands of his hair to sting his skin until he was sure, if he looked, there would be red welts formed.

But they kept at it until Rin got used to the right movements to make it over the terrain with the least effort. A sense of enjoyment came every time he launched off the hard surface of a spire or kicked black sand into the air, giving him something to entertain himself besides his own thoughts.

Just when his legs began feeling the strain of exertion, Rin yelped as Amaimon stopped in the middle of a jagged opening between the massive obelisks the spires had been slowly turning into the further they went.

Rin blew past him, body screaming as he dug his claws into the ground to stop his forward momentum until he finally skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust and coughed when it got into his lungs.

He grumbled under his breath, knowing Amaimon definitely wouldn't understand why a warning or slowing down before coming to a stop were available options instead of just hoping Rin was a mind reader and would know he was about to slam on the breaks.

"Why'd we stop here?" Rin asked when he made it to the clearing.

Instead of answering right away, Amaimon drew his hand up, a square of sand rising with it before he clenched his fist and it solidified into the same hard stone of the spires, making almost a bed that Rin watched him place Mephisto on.

A second later and spines like a ribcage rose over Mephisto. Rin got one last look at his windblown hair thrown across his face before Amaimon flicked a wrist and sent the whole thing over to the base of the nearest obelisk.

"Er-" Rin couldn't get anything out, Amaimon making a motion to bring Rin's attention to another obelisk.

"Hit that, as hard as you can."

Yeah. Rin stared up at the pillar's hard, unyielding surface and could already feel the broken bones. But, he'd had worse injuries over the past months since unsheathing Kurikara so, with a huff of breath and a shake of his hands, Rin put all he had into a punch to the center of the pillar.

A crack split the air a second before Rin felt the agony of bones snapping in his hand and breaking skin.

Black shards splintered around the impact site, an inverted bowl-shape where his fist had stopped half-way through while a deep line reached the rest of the way to the other side.

Hah! Rin grinned, the ache of his maimed hand fading as it healed. He turned to smile in triumph at Amaimon only to see a bored expression on his face and a sucker in his mouth where he sat on the raised stone stool he'd made while Rin had been distracted.

"What?" Rin said, feeling his eye twitch at the unimpressed look.

Amaimon crunched through the sucker, scraping a black claw to his cheek as he considered Rin before speaking, "you held back, why did you hold back?"

"No I didn't!" But the protest just had Amaimon talking to himself again.

"What happened to the power he had in the forest? Can he not use it without his heart out? How disappointing for me."

"I wasn't holding back," Rin growled, clenching his hands until he felt claws prick at his palms.

Gold eyes focused on him again as Amaimon spat out the finished sucker from his mouth and stood. "You were. Maybe you need motivation."

Rin didn't get a chance to argue. Amaimon appeared before him and sank his fist into his gut.

His breath left in a forced whoosh as he slammed into the same obelisk He'd just hit, only this time his scattered senses registered the sound of stone shattering as he broke through to the other side and into the next spire.

"Gah-!" Rin choked, blood hitting the backs of his fangs and leaving flecks on his lips. His mouth gaped, body trying to get air into damaged lungs and failing while his head burned without oxygen.

Whirling colors from what was definitely a concussion made his stomach give a sickening lurch as he tried to orientate himself and couldn't through the yellow-green kaleidoscope his vision had become.

"Please fight me like you did in the forest- ah, without your flames, though, or Father might sense you," came the words from Amaimon, called out from where he'd stopped with his fist still raised across his chest as he waited for Rin.

Bastard. Rin hissed between extended fangs, the burning in his skull no longer from lack of air and healing fractures, but from anger at being tossed around like a rag doll.

From being called weak.

Heat simmered under his skin. Rin pulled himself from the indent in the rock.

He attacked.

Flying over the space Amaimon had put between them, Rin hauled his fist back to return the favor, gaze pinned to the unimpressed one staring back until he saw himself reflected in the gold of his irises.

Then Amaimon vanished and Rin felt his arm wrenched to the side by his wrist, pulling him off-balance and sending him face-first into the ground.

Black filled his vision, in part because of what he'd landed in, but mostly because he'd hit so hard his head was still ringing even as he got his feet under him and snarled, searching for Amaimon.

He caught the deep maroon color of Amaimon's coat and reached with extended claws to get ahold of some part of him but, just as he felt the edges of the worn fabric, it slipped away and he was thrown to the ground again.

So he tried again, snarl on his lips and heated breath on his tongue that threatened flames.

And again, Amaimon slipped right through his guard, palm flat on his back to send him tumbling down.

Again.

Rin spat out sand, the grit caught in his teeth where he'd met ground for the millionth time rubbing his gums as raw as his nerves.

"Dammit! How are you doing that?" Rin jerked towards Amaimon who still watched him, as unruffled as if he'd just started.

Amaimon cocked his head, bringing his thumb to his mouth to bite at the claw.

"You project every move you make, did you know that?"

"Project?" Rin said, blinking as he tried to figure out what a project had to do with Amaimon somehow seeing and anticipating every one of his attacks.

His guard went back up when Amaimon dropped his hand and walked towards him- was he about to attack again? Rin shifted his foot, getting ready to duck or, as had become readily apparent, try to duck and instead get tossed like he hadn't moved at all.

"That," Amaimon said, gesturing to Rin's feet like it explained anything, "don't do that."

"Do what?"

The question barely left his mouth before Amaimon was in his space and kicking at his foot.

He yelped, getting one confused look up at Amaimon before he found himself falling to the side like he'd been yanked.

"Ah!" Rin gasped as his chest slammed down hard enough that he couldn't breathe again, though a passing thought said at least he hadn't coughed blood up, this time.

If Amaimon pulled that one more time-

Rin shook himself, scrambling to his feet to glare at Amaimon, "that doesn't actually help!"

Furrowed brows met him as Rin felt his lip curl over his fangs.

But Amaimon relaxed his body and seemed to be thinking about his next move so some of the irritation bled out of Rin and he crossed his arms, waiting.

"Hmm, okay," Amaimon hummed, coming to a decision and stepping towards Rin.

"Huh?" Rin made to step back from the advance but Amaimon gripped his shoulder, keeping him in place with a hand like an iron clamp.

A foot kicked at the inside of his foot and Rin bit off another shout of affront as Amaimon adjusted his body with quick, efficient movements.

It was over in moments, the hand on Rin's shoulder pulling away as Amaimon surveyed his work with a blank expression and a short nod.

"You can't use your flames, so you have to use your strength and claws to your advantage- and you have to stop getting hit," Amaimon said while Rin stayed frozen in the position he'd been put in.

"Ah- dodging, too, and predicting another's movements, using your senses instead of being led by them…" With each new thing Rin had to learn, a clawed finger curled, ticking like he was checking items off a list.

"And," Amaimon tapped a claw to Rin's forehead, making him go cross-eyed at the sting, stunned by the sudden touch, "you have to stop holding back."

Rin shook his head, cheeks heating as the sharp sensation lingered even after he'd dislodged it, "okay, okay, fine, I can do that."

His words did about as much to convince Amaimon as they had before, which was nothing.

He'd put distance between them again, standing a few feet away and loosening his stance. Then he raised a hand and quirked a finger at Rin, "try to hit me again, please."

The suspicion that things would end the exact same as they had the last thousand times Rin had tried to hit Amaimon didn't mean the order would change any time soon, so Rin narrowed his eyes and aimed right for the bastard's blank expression.

-And Amaimon had a hand up to knock his arm to the side so that Rin ended up stumbling forward without anything to stop him, just brushing past Amaimon's shoulder on his way by until he could stop.

"Again," came the order.

So Rin turned and aimed for his middle this time.

Heat snapped under his skin when Amaimon did something with his feet that allowed him to twist and avoid the hit with what looked like no effort at all.

He swiped with increasingly violent attacks as the air around his body shimmered with the suppressed fire coming out as waves, the only thing of Rin's to make contact with Amaimon.

Stay still- stay still!

As if by Rin's unspoken command, Amaimon stopped dodging. One moment, he was shunting Rin aside, the next taking hold of his wrist and tugging Rin off balance.

Wrenching on his shoulder where he now dangled from Amaimon's hand had Rin hissing in pain and trying to pull free.

"You're still just wildly attacking, are you even trying?" Amaimon dropped Rin to the ground in the same heap he had been for the past half hour.

Shaking his head dislodged the dust and sand in his hair, giving Rin time to get his flames under control, though he felt them bubbling in his throat as he shot back up.

"Yes!" Rin jabbed a finger at Amaimon, "show me how you dodge like that."

He was mad, more than that, actually, his instincts clawing at his insides because he couldn't get at Amaimon despite the repeated attempts and even more pissed at getting his ass handed to him the whole time.

But, Rin also couldn't deny that it was also really, really cool and he wanted to learn as fast as possible so he could fight at Amaimon's level of skill. He had never been so excited to learn anything in his life, in fact. Not that cooking hadn't become his point of pride and something he loved, but it hadn't begun that way.

Though necessity drove both skills, Rin had never had a teacher when it came to cooking anything outside the basics that his dad had shown him before he'd outgrown that and moved onto more difficult things.

In this, he had someone who probably had more years than Rin could comprehend learning how to fight. He just had to figure out the basics and move from there, like learning to cook.

He could do this.

Warmth pressed to his body, Rin squeaked, turning, wide-eyed, to stare over his shoulder at where Amaimon now stood an inch too close.

"Your stance is so poor a human could probably knock you over," Amaimon said, hands raising to adjust his upper-body while Rin's mind blanked.

His mind called up the last time they'd been so close and his neck tingled with the remembered lick Amaimon had given it, the way he'd held him effortlessly to the wall with dangerous claws pricking through his clothes to his vulnerable belly.

Rin's stomach twitched with ghost sensations and an unbidden shiver went down his spine.

This close, Rin couldn't help taking in Amaimon's scent, very aware of the scant distance between clawed fingers and his tail as he shoved at his shoulders and moved to adjust his hips and legs next.

"Do you see how this is better?" Amaimon spoke and his breath moved the strands of Rin's hair not coated in dust to tickle the tips of his now heated ears because he was definitely blushing.

"Yeah- yep, I can-"

-Feel it, Rin completed in his head, forcing himself to break from the embarrassing memories so he didn't clue Amaimon into the fact that he was thinking about them at all. He didn't doubt Amaimon would tease him mercilessly about it after he'd been so insistent about not messing with him like that.

"Good, we'll do this slowly, then," Amaimon said with no hints that he'd noticed the effect he was having on Rin.

"Right now," Amaimon began, voice bored but in a pitch that made Rin automatically pay attention, "you're working on instincts in a fight."

Amaimon went to stand in front of him, limbs loose as he regarded the stance he'd set Rin in, "but those instincts are worthless without Father's flames to back them up because you rely on overwhelming force to win your fights."

Rin suppressed a flinch as Amaimon reached for him again, trying not to show any reaction to the hand encircling his wrist or the other at his shoulder.

"So you need to build new instincts to fall back on when you can't use your flames," Amaimon said as he shook Rin's arm in front of his face like he was reminding Rin it was his, "you need the basics and you need to memorize them until they become automatic."

It sounded obvious, laid out in clear lines that made sense to Rin, which was just weird that Amaimon was probably the closest thing to a good teacher Rin had ever had besides his dad.

"Okay," Rin nodded to show he understood and was ready, tensing his body.

"When you're better at this you won't need to worry so much, but memorize this pose," Amaimon flicked a finger to Rin's shoulder, "it's your default and you should return to it- and don't stop moving, you should never be stationery in a fight."

"Oh!" Rin gasped, epiphany hitting him, "like a boxer!"

"A what?" Blank eyes met his, waiting for an explanation.

"Like this," Rin said bouncing lightly on his toes with his fists raised in front of his body and throwing shadow punches like he'd seen the professionals doing on TV.

A frown and claws scratching to Amaimon's cheek answered his example.

"You have bad form," Amaimon stated, making Rin grumble and stop, though, at a look from gold eyes, he returned to the previous pose with some minor adjustments from Amaimon until he was satisfied. "Don't swing your arm back, you leave yourself wide open."

He raised his fists, then threw a punch.

One, heart stopping second Rin thought he was getting punched into another wall, eyes squeezed shut as he waited for impact, the next, air rushed past his face.

"Don't close your eyes," Amaimon's instruction had him cracking his eyes open, flinching when he saw pale knuckles a centimeter from brushing his nose, "break that habit, even when you're attacking, too."

Before he could wonder how to train himself from flinching, Amaimon gripped his elbow and fist in his hands. Rin bit off another surprised squeak, knowing he'd have to get used to the random touches if he was going to learn anything.

His arm ended up extended, Amaimon twisting his fist flat at the end before drawing it back.

"Do you see? This is the full extension you should end at," warm fingers pressed to his skin, Rin doing everything in his power to focus on Amaimon's words and not that, or how close he stood again, how close his breath was to his ears, "don't overextend or you leave yourself open, and don't bring your arm further back or you waste time."

"Try it."

The order shook Rin as Amaimon dropped his hand and he was quick to perform the motion, several times until he thought he had it down.

"Should I-" he yelped, jerking his head to his back leg where Amaimon tapped a claw.

"You're right-handed, so you should step with this leg and use this one to give you more power."

Why did he need to touch his legs to show him that? Rin wanted to shout the question but knew if he did then Amaimon would definitely know he was remembering the tail thing and that would just make things even more awkward. So he just had to keep acting like Amaimon touching random parts of his body as he instructed him was totally cool and nothing to think too hard about.

"Like this," Amaimon demonstrated a little hopping forward motion to go with the punch he'd shown Rin, "and don't close your eyes."

Rin mimicked the move under Amaimon's watchful eye.

"Good."

They went through a few more forms, Rin getting more comfortable with keeping himself fluid in the default position and his punches in the right zone.

Then Amaimon nodded, "next, falling and recovering."

"Falling?" Rin asked, then, seemingly with no effort at all, Amaimon hooked the toe of his boot behind Rin's knee and yanked him down.

"Oof!" Rin gasped, gaping up into the dark sky as he tried to understand how he'd ended up on the ground.

"Get up."

Scowling at the order didn't stop Amaimon from raising an impatient brow, so Rin grunted and stood. He didn't bother dusting himself off, knowing he'd more than likely wind up on his ass in a few minutes anyway.

"When you fall, you have to roll," Amaimon said when he had Rin's attention, "it lessens the impact and gives you the chance to dodge follow up attacks."

"Like this." And Rin got treated to the oddly graceful sight of Amaimon toppling himself backwards, light, like he weighed nothing at all, to bounce back up in a single fluid motion.

"Wow," Rin murmured, already moving to replicate what he'd seen.

He fell, gravity taking hold, banging his elbow to the ground before lurching to his feet, with a yelp at the fading bruise.

Amaimon snickered.

"Hey," Rin snapped a glare at him, "show me again, dammit, I'll get it right."

Grin still curled on Amaimon's face, he at least went through the fall again. Rin watched him closely. The way Amaimon fell like he was totally confident he could catch himself and had all the time in the world to do it had Rin chewing at his bottom lip.

Okay. He could do that. Again, Rin dropped, the twist at the end to get to his feet coming much easier, until Amaimon sent him a thumbs-up.

"Where'd you learn that?" Rin asked, because he was pretty sure the gesture was a human thing.

"Samael said it's a human gesture of acceptance, and I've noticed them doing it when I watched them on the streets."

Rin tried to think about Amaimon people watching to pick up their mannerisms and felt his lips twitch at the concept.

"Yeah, basically," Rin said, his own form of teaching, and wondered what other things Amaimon had picked up watching people, "what's next?"

"More falling."

As it turned out, there were a lot of ways to fall. Rin spent the next few minutes learning all of them, and then learning how to do them right.

"Good." But hearing that simple praise from Amaimon got Rin up each time, long after he was hopelessly coated in dust.

"Next up-" Amaimon began while Rin recovered from his latest fall.

"-Escaping a pin." Gold eyes gleamed with a light Rin couldn't place.

An arm came up around his throat, another hooked under his arm to connect next to his ear.

Rin froze, arching to escape the press of Amaimon's body behind him but unable to get far from the hard grip locking him in place.

Growling began in his chest, an instinctive reaction he forced back before it could fully form.

"I want you," Amaimon began, sending a shiver through Rin, "to hold me like this, please."

"Yeah, got it," Rin said, pretending the rasp in his voice was from the pressure on his windpipe and not the heartbeat he could feel through his back from Amaimon.

Great. Yeah. He could do this. Rin was glad Amaimon faced away from him so he wouldn't see his expression, knowing there was a blush on his cheeks by how hot they were as he wrapped his forearm around Amaimon's neck and pushed his arm up and under to hold him there.

"Break this hold like this." Amaimon sounded completely unaffected, demonstrating the escape by twisting.

The world twisted too, and Rin gasped, one moment, holding Amaimon, the next, airborne as Amaimon tackled him to the ground.

Maroon fabric pooled around him, Amaimon pressed over his body where they'd landed, pinning Rin with a knee over his hip and his wrists in one hand.

The other needled the points of his claws to Rin's throat where he'd broken into a cold sweat.

"Did you see what I did?" Amaimon said, and was it Rin's imagination or was there a purr running in an undercurrent to his words?

He didn't want to think about it, forcing his fangs back to nod. Rin knew, with a sudden clear view into the future, that he had to get this part down quickly or suffer infinitely more embarrassment.

Amaimon rose, allowing Rin up, and had Rin in the hold again.

Heart pounding hard once, Rin twisted in Amaimon's arms.

They went down, Rin remembering at the last second to get his knee shoved to Amaimon's hips and his hand on his wrists. He didn't have his claws out, fingers set to the artery in Amaimon's throat before he could stop himself.

The pulse under his fingertips beat even and slow as if to mock Rin's own that fluttered in his neck.

"Hm, you hesitated, but it's enough for now," Amaimon spoke, head tilting as he shrugged. Something about it had Rin focusing to the bared skin. His heart thudded.

His continued hesitation didn't go unnoticed. An abrupt move from Amaimon sent Rin rolling to the side, legs coming to bracket his hips and his wrists once more caught in Amaimon's hands.

"Ah!" Rin yelled in surprise, staring up into Amaimon's face and digging his heels to the sand to try getting leverage to push him off.

"I was going to have you try the other way around again, but we can practice breaking this pin since we're already here," came the casual response to Rin's attempts.

Oh god. This was some kind of punishment for something he'd done in a past life for sure. Rin bit back a whimper as he realized he'd been thrusting his hips to Amaimon's to try shaking him off.

"To get out of this one you have to push me to the side and follow through to get on top of me," Amaimon continued as though he didn't notice Rin flushed from his attempts to throw him, like he was perfectly content to sit on Rin throughout the entire explanation.

"Well?" Rin blinked, coming back to himself and wrenching his body with more force than was probably necessary to heave Amaimon to the side, sucking in a sharp breath to stop the growl that wanted to form. It formed anyway.

"Yes!" Amaimon grinned up at him, despite the wince of pain he'd shown when Rin's attack had slammed his head to the sand, "you didn't hold back."

He hadn't? A dark stain spreading in the black sand beneath Amaimon's hair sent Rin scrambling off him, "I'm sorry!"

Had he just hit Amaimon hard enough to fracture his skull? If he'd done that to a human, one of his friends, he'd have killed them. There would be no coming back from an injury like that, they wouldn't be like Amaimon, rising from the ground with red soaked sand encrusting his hair and a confused frown.

"Why did you stop?" He asked, irritated, "that was what you need to do."

His whole life, Rin had the lesson of restraint pounded into his brain, had seen what happened when he accidentally forgot and people got hurt. He hurt people.

And now Amaimon was telling him to ignore that, to unleash the strength that had gotten him fearful looks from everyone, had made his dad look at him with a sadness he tried to cover with gentle or teasing humor, with reminders to temper himself or wind up alone.

Amaimon narrowed his eyes, head dipping as he searched Rin's face. Then his expression deadened, "you're holding back because you're afraid of hurting others, not yourself."

That was it. Rin gulped, a short noise of assent making its way out, scared of what Amaimon would do with that knowledge.

"You can't afford that here," Amaimon growled, face twisting in a snarl, in rage, "we will die if you keep holding back, if you treat this like a game, like you can expect the same mercy from Gehenna."

Rin flicked his gaze to Mephisto, seeing his still body in the cage of obsidian. Then he thought about Yukio, his friends, waiting back in Assiah for him to return. Amaimon was right. Again.

He breathed out, slow, raising his gaze to Amaimon's and nodding, quiet but firm, "you're right, I won't hold back anymore."

"Show me," Amaimon hissed, snapping a clawed finger to point at another spire, larger than the first.

He moved before the last syllable had left Amaimon's mouth, throwing a punch like he'd been taught.

His punch hit his target, a sickening crunch of bone and cartilage where it impacted Amaimon's chest and flung him into and through the obsidian spire.

A percussive boom echoed the roar Rin let loose, savage victory sending his blood pounding in his ears and flames boiling under his skin.

Dust obscured Amaimon from him, but Rin could hear the heartbeat, could hear that it finally pounded to match his.

Good, now Amaimon would know he took this seriously, that it wasn't a game. Not to him.

Clouds swirled in the dust as a figure emerged.

Gleaming gold shone through first, the rest of Amaimon's figure breaking through the dust to reveal his concaved chest, ribs cracked and blood darkening the tatters of his clothes on his upper body.

It didn't stop the wide grin on his face or dim the wild delight of his expression.

Rin matched him, fangs bared and knowing his own eyes would be glowing with the energy inside.

The energy spun between them as Amaimon stalked closer, chest healing in wrenching pops as bones snapped back into place.

And Rin could smell the blood on him. He licked his tongue he discovered had grown long and tapered to his lips before he could think about the action.

"Good, Rin," Amaimon purred his name, dark like the blood that stained his lips and glistened off his fangs.

The call of his name rattled through Rin, pricking his attention as Amaimon came into range.

"We can continue now, unless you'd rather keep playing?"

What?

He blinked, trying to understand what Amaimon said, finding it difficult to think beyond the rumbled undercurrent beneath his voice to the actual meaning.

What had he been…?

The last rib popped into place, skin healing to close up around it just as Rin regained his mind.

Holy. Shit. Rin stumbled back from where he'd been about to lean into Amaimon, eyes wide as panic shocked him out of the haze of his instincts.

"Hm," Amaimon seemed disappointed, head cocked and wild gleam fading with Rin's distance, "so you don't want to play."

No- yes, he did, but he didn't.

His tail twitched where it constricted around his chest like a vice, an attempt to hold himself back as he shivered at what his instincts had almost driven him to do.

"Yes, can we keep going now?" Rin said like he was another person, voice steady despite the inner turmoil, "how far are we?"

The rest of the beast in Amaimon fell beneath his impassive exterior again as he snapped to repair his damaged clothes and remove the blood.

"Another twenty-four hours, forty-eight, if we stop again." He waved his hand and the cage around Mephisto crumbling back to sand that rolled in a smooth wave and deposited him into Amaimon's arms.

Twenty-four hours of running. The journey seemed daunting. Rin stared into Amaimon's eyes and thought they held a little more regard for him than before.

He straightened, smiling and shaking the rest of the turmoil away.

"I'm ready when you are."

They began again, leaving the clearing of toppled spires behind.

---

How long they ran for, Rin couldn't track. His feet had bruised and healed so many times he'd grown numb to the pain.

Amaimon continued without any signs that the hours of running bothered him, his gait steady as he led them through the maze of spires.

Sand and shards had turned to hard ground beneath them before Rin noticed, the spires curving like they'd been wind blasted. Still, they kept on.

The passage of time was further obscured by the lack of any change in the dark sky and Rin had long ago stopped trying to figure out the distance they'd covered.

A new sensation started to steal his attention.

Hunger bit a hole into his stomach. Every now and then dizziness sent Rin's vision spinning.

He wanted to keep going. He had to stop.

"Amaimon!" Rin shouted over the wind that whipped past them, though he had to cough after not having talked for so long.

But Amaimon heard him, head twisting to the side as Rin gestured to halt.

Maybe, Rin thought with somewhat delirious humor, his example would teach Amaimon to extend the same courtesy the next time he wanted to stop.

"What?"

Rin huffed a breath, trying to recover quickly as his body trembled now that he'd broken his rhythm.

"Okay, we gotta stop, Amaimon," Rin said as he pressed a hand to the ache in his stomach, "I haven't eaten since last night and I think I'm seeing two Mephisto's right now because I'm so tired."

Expecting some resistance, Rin prepared to argue his case.

Amaimon shrugged, claw tapping to Mephisto's back, "okay, but not here, it's not secure."

It hurt to start running again, but, knowing it wasn't for long allowed Rin to do it without too much argument from his body.

The place they ended up in came out of nowhere, startling Rin when, one moment, they ran amongst rough stone, the next, a bowl in the ground, like someone had scooped with their hand, appeared in front of them.

Black spines made it seem like they hopped down into the maw of some great beast, and, when they reached the bottom, Amaimon drew his claws overhead, the spines thickening until their view of the sky disappeared.

Only a few slivers of space remained between the spines to light the domed hideaway Amaimon had created. The rest of the light came from the glow of their irises.

Mephisto ended up set by Amaimon's feet, not dropped for once, as Rin made it to the ground by the sloped wall and collapsed.

A poof reached his ears and Rin cracked his eyes he hadn't realized had closed to see Amaimon holding a bag of chips.

His stomach growled again, loud in the silence of the dome.

"You can have some, if you want," Amaimon said, holding the bag out.

Rin stared, mouth watering, before he said, slowly, "thanks, but please tell me you have real food, or at least a lot more than that on you."

The bag was pressed to his hands in a crinkle of plastic, Rin pouring the contents into his palm to devour, ravenous in a way he'd never been in his life, as Amaimon went over to Mephisto.

Now that he'd started, he might bite Amaimon's hands off if he tried to take them from him again.

He knew it too, if the smirk sent his way meant anything.

Another poof brought the scent of meat to Rin's nose and he snapped his head up, nostrils flaring to take more of it in.

His shoulders slumped in disbelief.

"Is that," hot saliva pooled in his mouth, "is that fried chicken?"

"Mmhmm," Amaimon nodded, bucket of chicken tucked in his hold as he dropped an entire wing, bone included, down his gullet, "but you can keep the chips if you like them so much."

The bag dropped, forgotten, to the ground as Rin made his way off the wall to the literal hot food Amaimon somehow had in his possession.

"What the actual hell even are your powers?" Rin mumbled, nearly vibrating with the need to sink his teeth into the meat and hoping Amaimon didn't try to tease him with it or he might try to punch him into a rock again.

Gaze flicking to Amaimon's let him see the way his eyes displayed the mirth his face didn't.

But it distracted Rin enough that he startled when the bucket was shoved into his chest and another- another- appeared in Amaimon's.

"I got them for later when I was exploring Assiah," Amaimon explained, moving to sit besides Mephisto's body. Not that it explained how they were still steaming like he'd summoned them right from the restaurant, but Rin wouldn't be complaining.

He went back to his chosen wall, moaning at the taste of what he now considered the best fried chicken he'd ever had and ever would have again.

Exhaustion crept up on him a little while later, belly full and muscles twitching in the occasional shiver, even after they'd healed.

Despite everything that had happened, Rin felt good, exerted in a way he never had been before and proud of the things he'd learned that day.

"Hey," he said, drawing Amaimon's gaze from where he'd been having a staring contest with the wall, or been lost in his own thoughts, it was hard to tell without an expression to go on, "You didn't fight me like that in the forest or the amusement park. Why?"

Yeah, he'd been overwhelmed in the park, but that had felt more like a back-alley brawl, like the ones Rin got in with bullies.

Then, the forest fight. Rin had unleashed all the fire burning at his core on the demon that thought to challenge him, delighting in the flesh turned to blackened charcoal before his mind had gone under and things got hazy.

"I was playing, I didn't want to end the game too soon," Amaimon said, tongue winding over his fingers to get the last of the salty juices off them.

"And," he continued, glancing at Mephisto and biting at his thumb like he was debating something, "Samael asked me to."

Rin stopped breathing, jerking to look at the still body on the ground as he tried to understand what Amaimon had just told him and couldn't.

"He," Rin paused, it still didn't make sense, "he asked you to fight me, even though he knew all my friends- and Yukio and Shura and that bastard Angel guy- were there. He asked you?"

"Yes." Amaimon met him with watchful gold eyes, leaned back on his palm with his leg outstretched and the other arm rested on the one bent to his chest, waiting.

It made sense, suddenly. Rin laughed, unable to respond any other way, and dropped his head back to the rock as the entire ridiculous path of his life took shape.

In the end, Rin concluded the same thing he'd known the second he'd heard that cheerful ringtone on a rainy, miserable day in a graveyard.

Mephisto was a bastard-

He opened his eyes, head rolling to rest on his shoulder to see a wary cast to Amaimon's face, a chuckle escaping him again.

-And he was still going to save his life.

"Cool." His short response made Amaimon blink, uncomprehending, and stilling as Rin got up and walked over.

"I'm gonna go to bed, thanks for the meal."

Rin bent to flick the button from Mephisto's cape-thing, ignoring the lip Amaimon lifted over a fang in confusion to tug it loose.

A few folds of his hand later and he'd turned it into a makeshift pillow, lifting Mephisto's head to tuck it back under and arranging his limbs so he looked more like he was deep in sleep than unconscious in a cursed coma.

Then he returned to the wall again, all without a word from Amaimon, and curled to get comfortable.

Well, as comfortable as he could on solid rock, but Rin was full and tired, so he would manage.

He drifted off, sleep claiming him from one beat to the next, and he knew no more.

---

Amaimon dropped his lip from where it curled over his fang, gaze locked on the steadily breathing form now sleeping by the wall.

He jerked his gaze down to Samael and a thin breath hissed between his teeth.

Rin's actions failed to make any sense.

Samael was unconscious. He couldn't feel anything. He wouldn't care if Amaimon used him as a blunt weapon, let alone if his hair was in order.

And yet- his gaze flicked back to Rin- he had taken the one thing that could be used for his own comfort and given it to the only one of them who had no use for it without a moment's hesitation. Like it was the only logical thing to do.

It wasn't logical at all.

Just like Rin's reluctance to hurt him had been. He'd had no problems before, during any of their other confrontations. Had set his flames on Amaimon like he'd enjoy nothing more than to burn him straight to the core and keep going.

Now, it had taken Amaimon baiting him in every way he could think to before Rin had finally shown him a glimpse of that power that lurked within his body.

When that power had finally made its appearance, oh, how it had shone. Amaimon rubbed a hand to his chest that had taken the brunt of Rin's attack, remembering the bright blue fire behind those warping pupils as Rin bore down on him without hesitation.

He'd wondered if he would have to work double time to keep both Rin and Samael safe during their journey, especially with the handicap presented by the danger of discovery by Father if Rin used his flames.

Yet another thing to curse Samael for. Keeping Rin so ignorant of himself, so afraid, like the cowering worms he lived beside, like a wolf amongst sheep, predator amongst prey- it made Amaimon want to gnash his teeth to powder. Amaimon glanced down at Samael's still face, eyelids shuttering as he took in how he rested on his folded cape.

Catching the taste he'd had of Father's flames had sated a piece of him that had been growing bored and stale in the unchanged monotony of Gehenna. Even untrained and fallen to his instincts in a berserk mode, fighting Rin had kindled a spark in his core that he couldn't recall having experienced since Father had first possessed a vessel in Assiah and entered the playing field.

Of course, the delight of feeling the raw power concentrated in a physical form when Father arrived had quickly soured after he realized he'd chosen a side in Samael and Lucifer's war, swayed over by the human worm that had birthed Rin.

He hadn't understood it then and he didn't understand it now.

That was a game Amaimon refused to play, no matter the ways they both tried to bring him over.

Samael slept on, oblivious to the turmoil he caused just by laying there.

A section of tangled hair fell across Samael's face. Amaimon froze, staring.

Without his say, he watched his hand move, slow, as if it wasn't him controlling his vessel.

Then he watched black claws touch to the purple hair of Samael's vessel to slide through, tugging the knots loose and tucking it all behind his ear.

Nothing changed. Samael remained asleep. Amaimon understood Rin's actions about as well as he had before, which was not at all.

He went back to his vigil.

A sucker and one of the many manga Samael collected appeared in his hand to entertain himself with. He had no idea how long Rin would need to sleep for and couldn't bring Behemoth out to play or risk alerting other demons to their location from the noise.

Amaimon stroked a finger idly over the keychain he'd transformed Behemoth into, wondering if he should reintroduce Rin. That might be fun.

Then he flipped open the manga and started in on it.

Sucker rolling between his fangs, Amaimon tried to find what, in these particular books, captivated Samael so much.

Every one he'd read so far all carried the same pattern, no matter the genre or subject material. Some worm would have a problem, then that problem would get worse through a series of illogical events that seemed to have clear solutions- at least to him.

For instance, the one he currently read. Amaimon squinted at the book he held sideways, pulling it up to his face to try to see if the ink on paper would become clearer that way.

It didn't. Amaimon sighed, tongue curling over his sucker in absent patterns. Why not just kill the worm who kept interfering with them and their goal and be done with it?

Maybe- Amaimon glanced at Rin over the top of the cover- maybe he would ask Rin later when he woke. He seemed eager to explain things to Amaimon, even if his answers tended to create more questions.

Still, it was a much better response than when Samael tried to explain things to him, since his explanations tended to be long winded and diverged in too many directions without answering the original question at all.

And better than the responses various humans had tried to give him over the years, though theirs could get muddled over their terror of him when he just wanted a simple answer to something.

Hours passed in silence, only disturbed by the turning of pages as Amaimon brought out more from his borrowed collection of Samael's.

Every so often Rin would shift in his sleep. His eyes remained opened to slits and he'd begun to drool. Though, Amaimon noticed he'd wince and shuffle positions, uncomfortable on the hard ground.

Well, at least they weren't going through the magma fields that made up the other route Amaimon had considered taking. The noxious gases released in those fields made it annoying to sleep through.

More time passed and Amaimon wished he had Samael's abilities to speed it up. How long would Rin sleep? Surely being a nephilim and Father's spawn meant he shouldn't need to sleep as long as a human.

Rin snored, snuffling as he rolled over, and Amaimon had a sinking suspicion Rin slept exactly as long as a human. He resisted the urge to poke him awake. But barely.

Something scratched on the ceiling.

Amaimon reacted before the sound finished echoing. He snapped, books and food vanishing as Samael appeared back in his arms while Rin woke with a surprised cry

Screeching erupted, the demons ambushing them giving up their silence now that they'd been discovered and launching from the cracks in the obsidian spikes he'd left for air.

Slim, coiling fire-tar eels glistened in the dim light their eyes and mouths gave off as they sprang towards Amaimon.

This would be a little more difficult to do one-handed.

He slashed with claws extended into lethal tips, gutting the first eel to reach him and ignoring the blistering welts that rose where their magma ichor stained his fingers. The others in the patrol group were quick to scatter, knowing they stood a better chance as multiple moving targets than bunched together.

A passing thought had Amaimon listening to search for Rin as he avoided ichor shots from the eels and retaliated with a rain of obsidian shards. He grinned as one pinned the tail of an eel, preparing to finish the job.

Blue flashed in the dark and Amaimon thought it was a flare-up, wondering if he would be able to outrun Father or retreat to Assiah before he found their location.

It hadn't been Gehenna flame.

Rin blew past him, a dark blur that grabbed one of the eels from the air to crush its head against the wall in a splash of magma. Despite the pain, Rin already moved to the next of the patrol, snarl warping him face and blue eyes glowing in the pitch.

Amaimon didn't let the sight stall his own attack, knowing that would be a quick way to wind up incapacitated.

But…

His arm squeezed tighter to Samael, heart thudding once to his ribs as a wide grin took over and bared fangs extended to wedges.

The brief lessons had paid off, it seemed.

Now, no longer holding back, Rin showed a little more of the power he contained. While it was still rough and untrained-

Amaimon grunted and slammed the heel of his boot to the earth, a crevasse formed to swallow another two eels as another motion squashed them to paste between the sides.

-Rin without the mental blocks he'd placed on his power could more than keep up with the beasts Gehenna held.

Not that it would let him survive in a fight against any of the Ba'al or even some of the more powerful demon lords and nephilim that existed. He would need his flames to make a difference at that tier of combat.

And, at that stage, even the demon lords and nephilim would fall to Rin's flames.

Only beings of Samael or Lucifer's levels might stand a chance at felling a fully-powered Rin.

Unsealed, a Rin unhindered by the controls the sword placed on his heart would have one match in strength.

Father.

When those two inevitably clashed, Amaimon would be there to witness it.

But it wouldn't be just yet. Not until Samael died or shook off his curse.

One eel remained, attempting to flee so it could report to Iblis of the intruders it had failed to destroy.

He sent spears to impale it into the wall, hearing Rin pant in exertion where he'd stopped over his last kill as Amaimon stalked up to the struggling body.

"Why has Iblis changed her patrol formations?" He asked without preamble.

Magma eyes rolled in the eel's skull, pain likely blinding it to his words. Amaimon flicked a claw to its head, seeing if that would get it to focus, "hey, I asked you a question, don't ignore me."

Rocks shifting behind him had Amaimon glancing to see Rin approach in cautious silence, coming to stand at his side and staring at the writhing eel. Was there pity in his eyes? Amaimon looked and saw none. Good.

"We don't know, earth king." He focused back on the eel as it spoke in a voice like lava spewing from the earth, cocking his head and waiting for it to continue. When it saw the answer hadn't been enough, it shook, magma ichor seeping from its mouth as its body tried to heal around the spears stuck through it.

"Our king hasn't told us- has only ordered us to attack and kill anything we find that does not belong," it said, a rasping gurgle accompanying the ichor, "and you and our prince do not belong."

Interesting.

"We will not say any more, so do not ask."

No, he didn't think he would. It was enough. Amaimon killed the eel in the next moment, already gesturing to part a hole big enough to leap through in the ceiling and jumping to the outside.

Rin joined him after a squawk of protest, a glare on his face as he scrambled up from the lip.

Instead of the complaints he expected- though Rin let a few grumbles loose under his breath- Rin glanced back at the rest point they'd left, "hey, what was that? What did it mean, we don't belong? I thought demons all belonged in Gehenna?"

A fair- if surface level- point. Rin really was so very new to their world.

"Yes, but we are in Iblis' territory," Amaimon said, scanning their surroundings to see if any of the patrol had hung back and fled, "and we haven't been claimed as part of it."

"Claimed?" Rin repeated the word and Amaimon realized he wouldn't know what a claim was, either.

Nothing showed itself to his search, so Amaimon gestured that they continue, speaking so that Rin would hear him over the wind, "a demonic claim. It means Iblis has put a mark to all others that any who bear it belong to the king of fire. The kin of fire that patrol these lands wear that claim, putting them above their lesser kin."

"Woah," Rin said, eyes wide as he processed Amaimon's words, "but wait, I know Astaroth didn't care when I accidentally killed that soot sprite, but won't Iblis be upset that we killed these guys?"

Iblis would be upset no matter what. Amaimon grimaced, saying as much to Rin and already imagining the annoyance dealing with Iblis would be.

He could see Rin understood that about as well as he did anything concerning demons, which was not at all. But, before he could clarify, Rin asked another question.

"Hey, do you have any- uh, earth kin that you've claimed?"

That wasn't such a clueless question.

Amaimon hooked a finger to his belt, unlatching the keychain he had Behemoth on and raising him to eye level.

"My Behemoth."

Blinking with a flutter of lashes at the hand in his face, Rin studied the small Behemoth whipping from the string in the wind.

Then Rin exclaimed with shock, "oh! That's the demon you sicced on us in the forest! Is he the only one you have?"

What did he mean? Amaimon narrowed his eyes, nerves pricked as he put Behemoth back on his belt. "Yes, I don't want any more."

Curiosity answered his short response.

"But Iblis has a bunch right? Her patrols. Why don't you?"

A hiss made it over the wind, sending Rin startling back from him and the lip he'd raised to expose a fang.

"I don't want any more claims," he said in a growl, firm to make his point very clear.

But it didn't keep Rin away for long, his tenacity sending him to catch up to Amaimon again, though at least his next words were more subdued.

"Sorry, is a claim a personal thing? I didn't know."

Was a claim a personal thing? Amaimon wanted to laugh at the sweet naivety, mouth twitching with the humor that broke his irritation.

"Yes." They'd come to a wide gorge overlooking one of the inner rings of magma within Iblis' territory and were forced to stop. "A claim goes both ways and ties both parties together, though they're not limited to each other and can form more claims."

"Really? So what's the point of- ah! Amaimon!"

The shout of his name from Rin had Amaimon smirking and tightening his grip on the tensed body as he carried them over the gorge, knowing it would be too far to jump.

Humans had a word for the reactions Rin gave that Amaimon searched his memory for before recalling it.

Cute. Rin was cute.

Well, if nothing else, he would be able to entertain himself by eliciting more of those reactions from Rin.

He set Rin down on the other side, letting his claws prick into his waist just under a coil of tail and hiding the grin that wanted to form at the squeak it got out of Rin.

Yes. He would be very entertained, even if Rin never decided to change his mind about playing with Amaimon.

"Could you warn me next time?" Rin hissed, glaring with a slight blush on his cheeks.

That would cut back on his fun, but Amaimon suspected, even with the forewarning, he would still be able to pull interesting reactions from Rin.

"Okay," Amaimon shrugged, "didn't you have another question?"

They continued, the land changing to become hotter the closer they got to the center of Iblis' territory. A shimmer of heat rose off the sandy dunes that extended to the horizon line. Their cover would be limited here.

"Yeah," Rin said, earlier ire forgotten with the change in topic, "what's the point of a claim?"

What was the point to anything? Amaimon had yet to find one after millennia of thinking about it. But he didn't think that was what Rin meant by his question.

"A claim is a mark on your soul, a tether that shows something is yours," Amaimon said, guessing that, after showing Rin Behemoth, he couldn't see claims. The ability was probably another thing sealed along with Rin's heart.

Should he let Rin know the final part about the inner workings of a claim? He had seen that Rin both claimed and was claimed in turn by his own familiar- the cait sidhe. An instinctual thing, likely, since Rin clearly didn't know anything about them.

"It's rare for a claim to be completed between both sides- did you know you have one with your familiar?'

"What? Really? With Kuro?" Rin's confusion confirmed it. He had no idea. Amaimon was no longer surprised.

"Amongst the Ba'al, only two have ever had a completed claim bond- or allowed themselves to be claimed by another."

He waited, fingertips furling into the fabric of Samael's clothes.

"Er, who?" Rin didn't break pattern, bumbling through the unspoken barrier like it didn't exist to ask his question.

Something dragged inside Amaimon, though he couldn't place the emotion, fighting a scowl at the unwanted feeling in his gut.

"Samael," he said, the names tasting like ash on his tongue, "and Abduxuel."

Twin aspects. Their claims had glowed like a galaxy between them.

"They used to be bonded to each other."

"Oh." Rin's short word trailed off, eaten by the wind as he fell into silence. Amaimon wondered how long it would last before Rin started up again.

They had hours to go yet and an expanse of barren desert to cross to reach the inner ring where Iblis reigned.

Though that would all depend on how many patrols they crossed and when Rin would inevitably grow tired enough to want to sleep.

He'd just settled into a loping pace over the dunes when movement caught his eye in the distance. If he'd seen them, then they'd seen him.

He darted in, speeding up as fast as his vessel could go and sparing a brief splash of frustration that he couldn't warp to the location.

Then he landed amidst the patrol and attacked, thrusting his hand into the sand to direct it outwards in a wave.

Alarmed shouts cut off with a clench of his fist, destroying their humanoid vessels to leave them as red stains in the sand.

But not all of the demons had been caught in the wave.

Rin took care of those, a brutal takedown from one to the next that had Amaimon stepping back to watch, no longer concerned that the human-like vessels would make him hesitate.

It wasn't worth it to take more to question. The orders Iblis had given these demons would be the same no matter their rank.

So, Amaimon would enjoy Rin growing more confident in the basic techniques he'd taught him with each demon he faced.

Blood speckled Rin's face after a particularly savage exchange he'd emerged the victor from. But that had been the last of this patrol.

"Good," Amaimon said, giving another thumbs-up as Rin walked over to him, panting. It wasn't from being worn out by the fight, though, since Rin didn't display any of the physical symptoms or smells. Which meant he was panting from excitement.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this," Rin said, bright smile gleaming where it stretched over his fangs.

Amaimon nodded, smoothing his hand in a broad sweep to hide the blood and traces of their fight.

"You are."

"Awesome!" Rin cheered, and, by the way his shirt shifted around his torso, Amaimon knew his tail would be wagging.

Such a simple thing to be so happy about. It made Amaimon want to get his hands back on that tail and squeeze. He hid a pout.

"Why didn't you ask one of them about Iblis?" There was the question. He gave Rin his reasoning behind it, Rin accepting the logic easily, as if he trusted Amaimon.

Amaimon snorted inwardly at the idea, beginning their journey over the sands again.

The energy of Gehenna waned and night fell, the desert growing dim to Amaimon's senses.

Several more groups followed, the shape of their order working itself out with each new encounter, like a puzzle he fit pieces to.

Soon, it became a tug of war between those moving pieces and them, every time the formation took on more detail, they got closer to the center and the rate of encounter increased.

Rin shook, letting a body from the most recent patrol group tumble from his claws. This time, the scent of exhaustion accompanied the trembling.

"Amaimon-?"

He cut off Rin's weakened call of his name, "you can sleep again, come."

He led them a ways from their location, fitting it into the mental map of the territory and patrol groups they'd met in it to find a place that would have lower potential encounters.

Sand parted with his direction, smoothing out into a hollow cave in the side of a dune while Rin swayed on his feet.

Blue eyes blinked, shuttering as it took longer and longer between one and the next for Rin to open them again. His feet sank into the divots he'd lodged them in for balance, until, swaying too far, he fell and caught himself by his hands with a soft groan.

Amaimon frowned as he finished creating their rest spot for the night. They'd found Rin's limits, it seemed. No amount of training would change that he had the majority of his power separated from his body. Rin was still more human than demon and the balance between the sides was thrown off by that artificial barrier.

Lifting Rin by his collar got him the expected yelp of surprise that he ignored to bring him into the den. Then he dropped him to close the entrance as small as he could get it, a hard point sloping from the top to direct the sand to the side.

That accomplished, Amaimon set Samael to the wall opposite the hole, sitting next to his body while Rin started slumping where he'd been dropped.

This was new. Would Rin forego his usual arranging of Samael's body out of exhaustion?

Rin jerked his head up, tangled bangs moving against his face when he forced himself awake from the doze he'd entered.

It looked like the routine would continue. He watched Rin again make a pillow of Samael's cloak for him, carding his claws through his bangs that had started losing their luster with the creeping degradation.

"He's getting worse, isn't he," Rin said, his voice roughened to a low rasp that mirrored the solemn expression on his face.

"He is," Amaimon spoke the truth, head tilting where it pressed to the wall as Rin's lips flattened in a thin line. The iridescent sheen that covered the crown of Samael's hair had faded, becoming the mottled yellow of an old bruise.

The dark bags under Samael's eyes had deepened.

He had no doubt that, if he looked, more bruises would be scattered to various parts of his body as he rotted from within.

It had been awhile since he'd seen Samael reach that point of destruction.

Not since…

"You wouldn't happen to have any water, would you, Amaimon?" Rin's request stopped that train of thought.

Snapping brought out a few plastic bottles, Amaimon knowing Rin would need it after going so long without- a second thought had random food items summoned that he'd intended to snack on later. Now seemed as good a time as any.

Sure enough, everything disappeared in moments, Rin collapsing to his chosen wall and breathing deeply. Amaimon expected him to sleep, with the way he shuddered and closed his eyes.

"I can't imagine Mephisto letting anyone put a tether on him," Rin said in a low mumble, head bent so that his hair shadowed all but a thin part through the strands.

So, he did understand the claim and the weight it carried on a soul.

"You can choose to accept a claim or not," Amaimon said, rubbing his thumb to the sandstone beneath it, "I don't know if any of the others have accepted one in the past- they might have."

"Did," Rin hesitated, eyes opening to gauge him as he spoke, "did Abdu- er-"

"Abduxuel," Amaimon corrected with a sigh at Rin's incapability to remember a single name for longer than an hour until he'd had it pounded into his head, "and no, he didn't accept any besides Samael's, either."

Though he'd had more than enough claims of his own on the various creatures he liked to collect, both on Assiah and Gehenna, Amaimon muttered as an aside, long ago memories rising to the present with the current topic.

"Does Mephisto, too?" Rin asked, drawing Amaimon from the memories.

"Yes, but he's more selective," Amaimon said, not that Samael's collection made any sense. Why he found one particular creature worthy of a claim over another had always eluded Amaimon.

"How long ago did it all happen?" Wasn't Rin supposed to be tired? By the jaw-cracking yawn he gave, Amaimon knew that he was. Why, then, was he continuing to ask questions?

"Just before Father appeared," he answered anyway, wondering where Rin was leading to, "about a hundred years."

Rin snorted, though it was muted, "just before, huh? That's a lot of time for most people."

Most people didn't matter, Amaimon thought with narrowed eyes, about to say so when Rin continued.

"What was he like? Abduxuel."

Amaimon froze, tensing in his position until Rin opened his eyes again to give him a curious look.

What was he like? His mind went back, traveling the centuries like the branches of a tree to the roots hidden beneath the earth.

---

"Amaimon! What're you doing in this corner of Assiah?"

He glanced up from the food he'd purchased from a human store at the arrival of the powerful presence of Space. He'd been patient this time, waiting until he saw what the humans used as currency, then making it.

After Samael had lectured him on why he couldn't just drop a fistful of gold or whatever other gemstone they currently coveted onto the counter in exchange, he'd begun the practice.

"I'm bored," he said, popping one of the candies into his mouth as he stared into absinthe-green eyes that seemed perpetually amused no matter the occasion and hoped Abduxuel would have a cure for his boredom.

"You're in luck, king of earth," an arm wrapped around his shoulders as another reached to snag one of the snacks from Amaimon's pile. He growled, but let it be, knowing it was payment for Abduxuel's help, as he seemed to be offering.

"When's the last time you were on Assiah, anyway?" They walked at a human's pace through the crowded streets lit by bright flames that annoyed Amaimon, though not more than the humans themselves.

Smoke made it hard to see, the sting of it causing him to blink, not that it made the problem go away. His bones ached and the hand Abduxuel had at his shoulder pressed to the degradation that had spread there.

"I don't remember," Amaimon shrugged, a passing group of humans dressed in strange clothes taking his attention as he tried to calculate the years.

Had the humans changed their clothing preferences again? How was he supposed to keep up with them every time he visited?

A finger flicked at his cheek, drawing him back to Abduxuel grinning down at him beneath the blue curl of his bangs, "by the way you're dressed I'd say it's been awhile- though I'll leave the exact timing to Samael, huh?"

Abduxuel laughed at his own joke, jostling Amaimon into his chest. He put up with it, long having given up protesting the unnecessary contact.

"Let's get you into something a little more current, then see about curing that boredom of yours."

Exactly what he'd been hoping for when Abduxuel had found him on Assiah.

"You'll never guess what the humans have come up with this century!"

He was always…

---

"... Fun," Amaimon murmured, "he was fun."

He'd worn a shallow groove into the floor with the repeated rubbing he'd done there while lost in thought. The groove had stained red, he'd worn his skin raw.

"Samael always has a goal," he said, mentally shaking himself from far away times to focus on the present, "Abduxuel went along with them, but only when they entertained him."

Rin stared at him with unblinking blue eyes.

It took him long enough to speak that Amaimon wondered if he'd fallen asleep with his eyes open before Rin finally blinked and settled back to the wall.

"Gotcha. Thanks- for telling me- and talking about this. I know it's hard."

Hard? The statement confused Amaimon as much as Rin's strange mood did.

"I'm gonna sleep now, goodnight, Amaimon."

Once again, Rin had left him with more questions than answers.

Amaimon summoned his books again, sliding his healed thumb along the spine of one.

A single question rose above the rest, though this one he knew he'd never get an answer to.

What would Abduxuel have thought of Rin?

---

He'd been struggling off and on for an uncountable time ever since he'd woken to move parts of his body.

Other than bare twitches of his fingers, the usual slow blinks, and utterly meaningless tilts of his head that only showed him the same mind-numbing scenery, he'd failed.

Nothing! That brief hope he'd felt after lasting so long his previous waking faded with his energy, every attempt to escape crashing and burning.

And he was burning out, knowing, if he could move at all, it would be to tremble in exhaustion.

A silent gasp of rage tightened his throat.

A ripple in the water.

He wanted to scream bitter fury at the two beings who taunted him with their freedom, their ability to talk with each other or even just to themselves. To fight and mock and move!

He wanted that freedom so much it ached.

But the moment he heard a voice come through in the silence, a yearning pushed past the bitterness so quickly he would have had whiplash if he could move.

"What's the point of a claim?"

The second voice. Such a foolish thing, so young, to ask a question like that. He wondered what the first voice's response would be.

"A claim is a mark on your soul, a tether that shows something is yours." Yes, a precise definition. He strained his senses to catch more. Was it his imagination or were the voices yet closer still? As if they were just beyond the first layer of clouds.

"It's rare for a claim to be completed between both sides-" The first voice cut out like a skipping record, making him huff an irritated breath, though that really just meant it came out slightly harder than the pathetic wisps he managed every other breath.

"Amongst the Ba'al, only two have ever had a completed claim bond- or allowed themselves to be claimed by another."

Why did the word 'Ba'al' spark familiarity in him? Like he should know it by more than a basic definition, like it formed some pillar of identity. Searching for the meaning turned up hollow emptiness. The same emptiness in his mind he was learning meant he should know some piece of knowledge, but that knowledge had been stolen to leave a hole where it should be.

It reflected the hazy emptiness of his surroundings. Bitterness welled up again. He no longer wanted these voices and the knowledge they taunted him with.

What good would it do, when his mind stayed stubbornly clear of any real information? The voices couldn't help him, were less real than the waters he drifted in, even. If their words were bare of anything that he could use, then they were worthless to him in this cage.

As if to throw his words back at him, silence echoed his inner tirade.

The waters lapped at his cheeks, his heart thrummed in his ears.

The voices, they'd...

They'd stopped talking.

Wait.

No.

Come back- come back!

He couldn't take the silence.

His eyes widened, pupils flicking in vain hope that he would see something in the clouds. The water muffled his hearing until all he could make out was the endless gray and his pulse struggling in his veins.

Come back.

He wanted the deliberate teasing and dry wit of the first voice, he wanted the naivety and straightforward persistence of the second voice.

The sheer need to get those voices back covered a sound, a hesitation on a tongue.

His heart raced at hearing it.

They were back, his whiplash mood hadn't somehow led to their permanent banishment, and, now that he was less desperate, he wasn't sure why he thought his inner beliefs had the power to bring the voices to him or send them away.

But he heard the next word from the second voice, latched onto the single syllable like it was a lifeline.

"Who?"

A simple question, the gravity of it felt more than heard because the second voice seemed to enjoy asking things without any awareness of the severity they represented. It took him a moment to remember the question.

Claims, and two beings who shared one.

Because he was listening for the first voice so intently, it took him an extra moment to realize something else had changed.

Was it his imagination or…?

He thought he saw stars through the grey sky- but he'd always held more interested in the void between them than the lights themselves.

Something whispered on the water. A name.

It sounded like a name.

Was it his?

l

No.

Not his.

He knew this with an intrinsic certainty he could never explain as he was now.

Then who?

Knowledge filled him like a single, clear stream of water, everything whiting out and his mouth gaping in a silent gasp, a scream.

Twinaspectotherhalfmine

Space that went on forever, the deep void between stars to the ends of the universe, ever-present and all around, and the twin aspect of-!

It fell away, unraveled. The other half of the equation, of who he was, eluded him still. But at least he knew something more. That he had shared a claim with the aspect of Space, that he was his, belonged to him, to each other, though the idea of ever belonging to anyone rankled him to consider.

Somehow, he had accepted this being's claim.

More important than that, however, was that he existed at all. If he'd had a connection to another being, then he must also be real. He couldn't afford to believe otherwise, or what was the point of fighting in this cursed space?

The voices had gone silent again, but the bitterness he would have felt was softened by the knowledge that he was real and that they would be back.

And he'd lasted longer again, this time. Surely that meant his freedom was close at hand. he just had to uncover more about his other half, Abduxuel, and see if that would jog more names from his tattered memories-

Sleep began to take him, the stars vanished from the sky.

-Maybe, even the names of the two voices.

He slept.

---

"Yukio!" Banging on the door to his dorm suite. He considered jumping from the window to avoid the cause of it on the other side. Then he sighed, knowing it was futile, and opened the door.

"Yes, Shura?"

An arm slung itself over his shoulder to direct him back into his own room.

"You've been avoiding me, kid," Shura said, kicking the door closed behind her and leaving a dusty imprint. Another thing for him to clean later.

"I've been busy, as you can see," Yukio said in a cold mutter, bitter anger welling up at how carefree she acted.

Around him, the mess of half-packed boxes sent another tired pang of defeat through his heart. He moved to the nearest pile of Rin's things and went back to putting them away with efficiency.

Shura was silent behind him, and he knew she would be taking in the state of things.

"They're making you move out, huh," her voice came out with an undercurrent of her own anger.

"Yes, the Grigori have decided that it would be best if I lived closer to headquarters," he said and flicked a short gaze to see Shura watching him with hard eyes. Then he knew why she had come. "They're making you move, too."

A nod, "got it in one, kid. Said there was no reason to keep an exemplary exorcist like myself in such dingy conditions, especially considering my new position. So, they're giving me a swanky place downtown, got my own fridge and everything, no more communal kitchen and bathrooms for me."

He didn't respond. It was the same.

"What are you gonna do with Rin's things?"

Yukio didn't freeze or show any reaction, taping the box closed with finality.

"They're going to have to go in storage." He'd had two options, throw Rin's things out, or find somewhere to store them. His bright new apartment in the city was still only big enough for one person's things. There wasn't any room for Rin.

"You're boxing him up?" Shura hissed the question, and this time, when he turned to her, he saw fury in her eyes.

"I have no choice," Yukio said, hard, as he moved back to his side of the room and the mess it had become, "they're sending people by later to help me move out."

"Dammit." Shura's cursing faded as she stared at the slowly vanishing signs that showed they lived there.

"I've got another meeting with Sir Lewin, later," he said as if from far away.

A sigh answered his words, "yeah, all the upper level exorcists are getting debriefed about something big today, but…"

She trailed off, the silence lasting long enough that he looked, then he noticed her tapping a finger to the back of her neck and pointedly not saying anything.

A contract of Morinath. She'd been sealed. As had he.

Nodding to show he understood, Yukio taped the last box, realizing he had less things than he'd imagined. His life fit into just ten boxes, most of it being bulky bedding or his textbooks.

"I'll catch up another time, Shura," he said, setting the tape down on the empty desk and meeting her solemn gaze.

"Yeah, okay," she murmured as she watched him a few more dragging seconds, then went to the door. She stopped, hand on the wooden edge, before she turned to look at him again, "he's gonna make it home, Yukio, don't give up on him yet."

He nodded and she left.

Rin? Make it home to them?

That was what he was afraid of, what he feared more than anything.

Yukio grit his teeth together until they ached.

If Rin returned, he didn't know if it would be a Rin he recognized.

If it would be Rin at all.

---

"Exwire Renzo Shima, we've got some questions you'll be answering for us."

Shima looked up into the shaggy fringe covering Lightning's eyes. Somehow, he still felt that gaze pierce into him through the mess.

He gulped, nerves sending a cold sweat to break out on his skin.

Faced down by the new director of the Japan branch of the Order, somehow, he still didn't feel any lessening of his anxiety.

Shura stared back at him from bewitching, lavender-hued eyes he would normally wax poetic about. But, from her position in the high-backed chair Mephisto usually sat in while he debriefed him, he couldn't seem to find the words.

"As an Illuminati spy you have two choices," Lightning continued with a cheerful tone from the side of the desk, "keep feeding the Order information, as you've done for Sir Pheles in the past, or lose any worth you had and we go back to square one with us torturing you for whatever information you haven't told us yet."

Right, the torture. Was is wrong to say he missed his demonic boss? Because, faced down with the brunt of the Order's wrath, he really, really did.

"Yup, sure thing, will do, no need to twist my leg about it," Shima said, giggling nervously as the smile on Lightning's face grew. It reminded him of Mephisto's.

"Great!" Lightning said, unfolding a tattered piece of notepaper he'd dug out of his back pocket that looked like it had seen better days to read from it, "let's see, Lucifer's nighttime routine, bathing habits, a picture of his tail- ah hah! Here we go."

He really hoped he wasn't actually expected to find answers to those first three questions.

"What do you know about the unsealed artificial Gehenna Gate and the light barrier now surrounding it?"

Fuck. They had to go for the hard questions first. He'd rather get a picture of Lucifer's tail.

The cold light in Shura's eyes when he went to look for mercy made it clear he wouldn't be getting any from her corner.

"See, here's the thing," Shima said, another nervous laugh accompanying his words, "he's gone!"

"He-?" Shura muttered.

Lightning didn't take that long to figure it out, head jerking back so that Shima saw his eyes, wide beneath his fringe, and smile dropped from his face.

"Lucifer is gone from Assiah?" The statement breathed out from Lightning, his words jolting Shura with realization.

"Er, yep, just, poof," Shima said and mimed a cloud of smoke with his hands.

"And they didn't explicitly tell you not to reveal this information?" Lightning said as he recovered from the shock. Definitely faster than Shima had taken to recover once he'd heard from Homare what had happened.

What they had said was that, 'Lord Lucifer had business in Gehenna to take care of,' and that, 'Homare will be in charge in his absence, continue your duties as usual, Shima.'

But, even Homare had looked shaken. Her hands had trembled as she told him to take his leave. Lucifer's chambers he usually rested in were empty.

"No, but they also didn't tell me anything else, so I'm as in the dark as you guys," Shima said, hoping they took him at his word and didn't decide to interrogate him anyway.

Two long gazes pinned him in place. He smiled guilelessly.

"Great! Thanks for your help, Renzo, you can skedaddle now."

He babbled some meaningless goodbyes and 'skedaddled', hearing, just as he left, Lightning say, "then Lucifer put the barrier in place, as we expected."

"He can drop the barrier at any point. We've got less time than we thought," Shura responded, grim.

Then, they revealed the information Shima had been dreading the moment he'd learned it, himself.

"The Gehenna Gate is open. Lucifer's got the key."

Yep, they were all screwed. He hoped Rin was having fun, wherever he was.

---

End notes: Uh, rip to everyone, I guess?

Ur half-right, Shima, Rin's kinda having a good time XD

idk how it happened but somehow my chapter length for this one chapter was more than the last 3 combined (:

Enjoy~ lemme know what you guys think :D