Yukio sat on his bed reading quietly. Rin was feeling rather antsy about something he read and was silently debating whether or not he should voice his concerns. Yukio would glance at Rin from the corner of his eye every now and then. The staring felt odd. Usually the demon went about his own business, but ever since they came back from

Ms. Yuushi's office Rin had been watching him all the time.

"Hey, Yukio?"

He looked away from his book and was a bit startled by his twin's uneasy expression.

"Yes."

"Uhhh.."

He waited for Rin to gather his words.

"I-I read that people with uh... schizer-whatever-"

"Schizoid personality disorder."

Rin looked uncomfortable.

"It's alright. You can say it."

"Oh right, okay." Rin found it odd that Yukio had no trouble admitting what it was. He

was the one who was more reluctant on saying it.

"Well... I read that people with it are more likely to use self-mutation."

Yukio's face twisted into confusion. Rin sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You know... hurting yourself..."

Rin felt offended when Yukio wore a small smile and shook his head.

"W-What?!" Here he is trying to be concerned for his younger brother and he's laughing at him! Or at least what would be considered a laugh for Yukio.

He's concerned for me?

"You mean self-mutilation?"

"Huh?"

Rin's face was twisted in confusion now. Huh. Maybe that had been the word.

"Self-mutation and self-mutilation are two different things, Nii san."

"Oh." Maybe he had read it wrong... Well anyway back to the being concerned part!

"So... do you?"

"Do I what."

"Use self- mu-muta-... hurt yourself?"

There was a long silence until Yukio gave Rin a small reassuring smile.

"No."

He saw Rin deflate from relief and smile back at him.

"Good."

Yukio went back to reading and Rin stared at him more. He studdied the seriousness of Yukio's face for a while. Try to get him to be expressive, whether it's feelings of unease, laughter, or even anger. Hestared some more. He wanted to see Yukio smile some more but a real one and not a small one either.

He stood up and went over to him and sat down on his twin's bed. Yukio glanced at him but other than that, he didn't really acknowledge him.

I may be taking too big of a risk right now but what's the worst that can happen? Either I'll get the desired effect or... he'll shoot me.

He outstretched his hands toward Yukio.

"Nii san, what are you-"

Is he tickling me? Yukio thought.

The demon was a little worried at the reaction he got. Yukio coiled himself into a ball and squeezed his eyes shut but Rin didn't stop.

"S-Stop!"

It sounded strained but Rin was determined! This sure is weird now that we're older... Rin thought as he continued to attack his brother's sides.

"What are you doing?!"

Rin noted that he sounded angry but his voice sounded extremely high, he smirked. Finally Yukio started to laugh and it was LOUD. It sounded kinda painful, Rin concluded. Maybe it was his demonic strength, ticking to roughly so he stopped and stared at Yukio as he heaved and gasped.

"You Idiot! What the hell was that?"

Rin flinched.

"I-I was just... I wanted to..."

He stopped when he noticed his brother was smiling.

"I just... wanted to make you laugh."

There was silence as Yukio just stared at Rin for a while and his expression went back to being neutral and... Content.

"Thanks."

The demon was a bit taken back by that but he smiled none the less and sat closer to him, making himself comfortable.

He noticed Yukio stiffen a bit at the contact when he remembered that closeness was difficult to deal with but did say the best medicine was exposure. If he kept pushing the limits, soon Yukio would build up a tolerance and after they worked on physical closeness they could work on emotional closeness. Rin smiled at his brilliant idea.

"I also wanted to tell you that me and the other exquires are gonna go to the zoo next weekend."

"Oh that's nice. Have fun."

"Well actually..." Yukio noticed his brother's cheeks go a bit flushed.

"I wanted you to join us."

Rin saw the hesitation in his eyes.

"Well... I don't know..."

"Aw come on Yukio! Don't be a party crusher!"

"Um... Well..."

He saw that Rin was starting to look a little...sad. Why is he sad? What does it matter if I'm not there?

"Um... Okay... sure, I'll go."

"Great!"

Rin left the room to go make dinner.

-_/

Next Weekend-

"Aren't you excited?!" Rin asked loudly as they stepped onto the train. All the exquires (and Paku) were there and not in their school uniforms. Somehow Takara had invited himself because Rin could have sworn nobody told him about it but whatever, the more the merrier, right?

"Yeah yeah. Quiet down."

Rin just ignored Ryujii's comment. They were all starting to sit down, Bon, Shima, and Konekomaru in an area. Yukio watched as Izumo and Paku sat in a section together but stood there quietly as Shiemi began to speak.

"Do you wanna sit with me Rin?!"

There is was. The pang of pain in Yukio's chest. This is why he hated being on outings with large groups.

"Um.. Actually me and Yukio are sitting together!"

What?

Shiemi nodded with a smile and went to go sit near Izumo and Paku. He was still stunned when, his brother forcefully grabbed his hand and began marching over to some seats, sitting himself in the window. Yukio just stood there for a while.

The demon sighed and grabbed Yukio by the sleeve of his sweater and yanked him into his seat. He heard Shima snicker at this. Rin stared out the window, enjoying the view. The train began to move and there was a long stretch of silence. Yukio didn't know what to say. He was never good with conversation. Rin glanced at his twin and saw his expression was at it's usual stoic setting so he was a little startled when he spoke.

"You can sit with Shiemi if you want."

Rin frowned. Ouch.

"But I wanna sit with you."

Yukio looked down at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why?" The demon replied, giving him an odd look.

Yukio pushed his glasses up his face a bit.

"No reason."

Rin simultaneously glanced at Yukio and saw that he was staring ahead with that stoic expression but then a smile flickered over his face for just a second before returning to being serious.

Rin smiled with his fangs and turned back to the window.

-_/

They were thoroughly enjoying themselves, looking at different animals in the zoo. They took turns picking something to look at. Izumo chose the foxes, Bon chose the sharks, Konekomaru chose some bird, Shima chose lions, and at Takara's turn which they'd all been curious about, chose the bat cave. It resulted in Shiemi crying and clinging to random people and Shima, flinching, thinking they were giant bugs. What a freak, that Takara was. Everyone would sigh when it was Shimei or Paku's turn because it was always something boring, like fish, or the butterfly house (to Shima's dread), or gophers or something insignificant like that. Rin only chose the oddest range of animals. At least everyone else had a sort of theme but Rin... It would be crocodile, peacock, gorilla, zebra, the randomness went on and on. Finally it was Yukio's turn.

"So what do you want to see, Yuki-chan?" Shiemi asked with wide eyes. Everyone turned to there teacher who had been mostly silent, during the whole outing.

"Um... I'm not really sure so you can skip me."

Rin scowled and everyone else just shrugged.

"No! We're not skipping you so think of something."

Everyone stared wide eyed at Rin's outburst.

He's not dis-including himself this time!

"But there's really nothing in general that I wanted to see."

"Sure there is! Think of something, anything!"

Yukio just stared at him, trying to hide his shock that rin was raising his voice about this.

"What animal do you like?"

"I mean... I don't really-"

"Oh don't give me that crap! There's gotta be something you like at least a little!"

"Well... I guess I like snakes-"

"Then let's go!"

Rin grabbed Yukio's wrist and began angrily dragging his twin along, again Shima snickered. Shiemi was just as shocked as everyone else but smiled.

Their finally getting along! She thought.Well sort of... She smiled none the less.