Tale of a Tail
Tale 4: A Happy Tail
Several weeks passed, Yukio had been impressed at the improvement his older twin had been making in his grades. Seeing Shiemi get more and more consistent on using the proper names of plants was impressive, too, and it made grading her work a lot less of a hassle. He knew she was smart enough, but he also knew she had her own way of looking at things which occasionally made it hard for her to find perfect logic in what most found perfectly logical, especially when it came to plants.
The fact Rin would agree to study sessions every two or three days with Shiemi wasn't surprising, Shiemi's enthusiasm and smiles were hard to resist, but seeing his older twin stick to those study sessions was somewhat surprising to him. Even more surprising initially was Shiemi's ability to decide when to take a break or end the session before his older twin really started getting too antsy to keep going and her habit of always wind up coming over for a study session whenever he was scheduled to go out on a mission. The young exorcist decided it was something he best not dwell on too much and that looking a gift horse in the mouth was something he'd rather not do.
Rin was torn. On one hand, he wanted to try and get his brother to let him follow him out on the mission he had to go on, but on the other Shiemi was coming over for a quick study session for the quiz they were having tomorrow. While he was anxious to get out and do something he also was loath to to disappoint his friend by missing the study session. None the less he felt he at least had to give at least a token attempt to come along.
"Are you sure I can't come along," he pleaded.
"Yes, I'm sure," Yukio told him sternly. "And I know you have studying to do anyway, brother."
"Spoilsport," Rin pouted.
Yukio sighed and adjusted his glasses. Oh, how he wished he could make it just once without Rin even making some level of an attempt to try to convince him to let him tag along. "Anyway, Shiemi should be here very soon. I may even see her on my way out now. Now, please try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone."
Rin made an annoyed sound of agreement, his tail flicking in agitation at how his younger twin was treating him like a little kid, yet again. Slumping down on a chair he frowned, muttering grumpily and his tail lashing in agitation as he was left alone with nothing to keep himself focused on other than how his younger twin treated him that way far too frequently for his liking.
He was startled from his grumblings as he suddenly heard a knock. "Rin, Yuki told me to just come in..."
He leaped up from the chair so fast it almost fell over and rushed to the door to the room, opening it wide. "Shiemi! Come on in!" he grinned. She was so proper sometimes even he could figure she'd want to be invited in properly even if told she could come right on in.
Shiemi smiled back and nodded politely as she entered. She loved seeing Rin look so enthusiastic when she came over to study with him. She watched him as he led her in past the doorway and further into the room, seeing everything from his warm smile to the set of his tail.
He flopped down into a sitting position in the middle of the room and patted the space in front of him. "Well, let's get this started!"
She sat down carefully in front of him and got out the first set of flashcards. As they went through the desk a few times to make sure they'd gotten as much down pat as possible they chatted a bit about this and that. A lot of it was pointless stuff such as Shiemi talking about the plants she'd been tending in her garden and Rin chattering on about different dishes he wanted to try making sometime, but Rin was more than glad for it, as it made the whole studying thing seem less tedious.
As they finished with that deck finally Shiemi got out the next and froze, staring at it, a troubled expression on her face.
"Shiemi?" Rin asked, concerned.
"I, I'm sorry..." she tried not to stutter. "I... brought the wrong flashcards..."
Rin looked at her, seeing her look like she could almost start crying because of that simple mistake. His mind raced trying to think of what to say, his tail straight out and unmoving behind him. "Don't worry..." he started. "I've got the textbook for this subject somewhere. We can use that instead..."
"But, but you seem to do much better when you use the flashcards I make..." she said, hiccuping slightly. "I.. I want to make sure you do well because..." she sniffled. "Because I worry about you."
Rin blinked in embarrassment and confusion at that confession. "Silly!" he blurted. "There's no reason you need to worry about me!"
"Rin!" she said, her face turning stern. "It's no secret what those in charge of the Order think of you and that if you don't do well enough they may decide you're not worth the risk and... and..." She sniffed as the thought of what could happen to him in that situation made her start to tear up with worry. "I don't want to see something like that happen to someone I really like..."
Shiemi took a breath and watched him, noticing his tail nervously twitching back and forth and a slight blush on his face. While she watched he was thinking about what she'd just said, trying to process everything it meant. And most of all trying to figure out what exactly 'really like' meant. Just thinking about it made him blush even more and hope, just a little, that it meant what he wanted it to mean.
Meanwhile it dawned on Shiemi exactly what she said. Her face turned red and she looked away embarrassed at how candid she had just been. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, not sure what to say then finally tried to start stammering out an apology for being so blunt.
"Shiemi," Rin said firmly, leaning forward slightly, still blushing slightly. His tail was swishing low behind him with anxious uncertainty. "'Someone you really like...' what exactly does that mean..."
As their eyes met and held she blushed even more. "I mean I really care about you and... and I really like you enough that... that if anything happened to you I'd... I'd..." She looked down, tearing up again, her emotions apparent.
Rin sat there nervously, not quite sure how to react. Taking a deep breath and silently thanking the fact it was just the two of them there he leaned forward a little more and reached out, placing his hand on her arm. "Shiemi," he started awkwardly. "I... really like you, too. And I'm not gonna let anything happen to me. Even if I have to show them in my own way, somehow I'll find a way to show them I'm on the same side they're on."
Shiemi looked at him again, seeing a mix of awkward embarrassment and concern on his face, and she'd heard the seriousness that had crept into his words, no matter how uncertainly they'd started. "Really?" she asked.
"Really," he answered. Before he knew it she had him in a happy embrace. It wasn't the first time she'd hugged him, but he still blushed at her wholehearted way of expressing herself like that.
"You like me too..." she said softly.
"Really like you," he corrected while putting one arm around her, not even realizing his tail had already moved to do the same. "Now we've got some more studying to do, don't we? Flashcards or no flashcards."
"Right!" she grinned while he started looking for what he did with the necessary workbook.
While digging for it a thought occurred to him. "You know, Shiemi, we never did get a chance to go back to the amusement park like we said we would..."
"We didn't, did we? With everything that's happened we never really got a chance to."
"Maybe we could go sometime soon," he suggested, blushing as he worked up the courage to say the next part. "We could make a date out of it..."
"Would they let you go out for something like that?" she asked.
"I can probably get Yukio to agree to it if I mention my grades going up," he reasoned. "And if we also get Shura to come along and help keep an eye on me she may keep Yukio distracted. Yes! I found the book!"
"If you can then I'd love to," she smiled shyly at him, watching his tail swishing merrily and looking at the huge grin on his face. She was sure she could be the happiest girl in the world if she could just keep giving him a reason to be that happy.
"All right. Now that that's settled we can get back to studying," he said, sitting next to her and opening up the book.
Yukio had arrived back at the dorm a bit later than he expected. He walked in to the room expecting to see only Rin there, the study session long since over as his older brother's short attention span caused it to end far sooner than Yukio would like. To his surprise he saw his brother and Shiemi next to each other against the wall, a book open between them, and the two of them nodded off to sleep.
He sighed, not knowing quite what to make of the scene, especially with how Rin's tail had worked its way around her waist with the tufted end slowly rising and falling in her lap. With a shrug he turned and left the room, deciding he'd get a bite to eat before he woke the two, and maybe try to figure out if he really wanted to know what went on while he was off on duty or not while he was at it.
notes:
Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I'd started it a couple days after posting the last one but then hurt my wrist and had it stuck in a wrist brace for a few days (the damn pickle jar wouldn't open no matter what I tried and I got mad at it an assaulted it...), then I had a fibro flare that caused enough back pain I couldn't focus while writing, and then I had the bad luck to find out on top of all the other crap I've been going thru for the last year (canned from work for a BS reason, my mom passing away, an emotionally abusive ex-friend trying to use that as a reason to become friends with me again, and my fibromyalgia getting worse just to name a few of the things) my dog has cancer and has only months left to live.
So, this is the final normal chapter of this fic. There will be an epilogue chapter after this, just a short little thing, but I'm hoping it comes out cute. I also have some very loose ideas for a companion work to this, too, but I'm not really sure how many of you actually want more RinShiemi fluff. And speaking of fluff, I had to pare this chapter down because the first version of it before I wound up putting it on hold for a bit was getting completely and totally overloaded with WAFF to the point I thought I was going to give myself cavities writing this. I even had to cut out one of the things I was setting up in this fic to de-WAFFify it a bit, which I will have to add to the companion fic if I do it. I do like me some WAFF, but it was getting a bit too much.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed reading this and that you'll like the epilogue for it when it's ready to go up.