It's raining.
Rin has always loved the rain. Maybe another leftover trait passed down from his previous life, sure, but he loves it all the same.
But right now, he can't help but scowl bitterly at the sky as raindrops pelt him, drenching his clothes. It's a petty scowl, as if the clouds were somehow at fault for everything.
But that's wrong, because it's all been Rin's fault.
The past few days, he's thought it over countless times, what he could've done, what he should've done, but nothing ever works out right even in these hypothesized scenarios and it's always his fault.
Mindlessly, he dials the only number in the phone Shiro gave him.
The memories that were fuzzy with age before are starting to come back to him, the more he sees the more he remembers, and he remembers it so very clearly.
Mephisto Pheles, Samael, demon king of time, stands beside him, along with a crowd of exorcists.
Rin makes his declaration— it's not like he has a choice anyways.
He'll become an exorcist and defeat Satan himself.
He finds Yukio in their room, packing. Rin can't even imagine what Yukio must be feeling, but if there's one thing he does know is that secrets never did anyone any good. It's too late to keep waiting for Yukio to open up, so... Now Rin has to be the one to start.
Then why won't my legs move? He thinks in frustration as he hesitates, hovering at the door.
Luckily, Yukio notices him standing there. He offers a sad smile, and waves for Rin to come in.
Rin's feet move without him telling them to, and he soon finds himself standing before his brother, who sits on his bed.
"What is it, Nii-san?" Yukio asks, and god, he sounds so tired. It almost brings Rin to tears again, but he swallows them back and takes in a deep breath.
"You..." Rin squeezes his eyes shut. "You deserve to know what happened. The whole truth."
Yukio stills, and his smile drops. "What are you... talking about, nii-san?"
Rin swallows. "About... About what happened to dad."
Yukio... doesn't react, not outwardly.
"They said that dad—"
"It was Satan." Rin interrupts before another lie could fall from his brother's lips. "We are the half-demon sons of Satan himself, and that night I awoke to my demon powers." He confesses slowly. "But, you... You knew that already, didn't you?"
This time, Yukio flinches, as if Rin had actually hit him. There's a long stretch of silence between them, and Yukio opens and closes his mouth several times before he actually speaks again.
"I wanted to tell you." He whispers, as if something were going to break if he spoke any louder.
Rin shrugs. "It's a tough subject." He says. "I don't blame you."
Yukio winces, leaning over and drawing a hand to massage his forehead. "I..."
"You don't have to say anything, just..." Rin shifts on his feet, before flopping onto the bed beside his brother. "I just, figured I should... I dunno, start?" He shrugs again. "I don't want there to be anymore secrets between us."
Yukio takes in a deep, shuddering breath. He looks up at Rin with glassy eyes. "Honestly? Me neither."
It brings a small smile to Rin's face, although it quickly fades, and he looks forward instead, clearing his throat.
"It... It was my fault that dad got possessed." Rin confesses, and Yukio tenses beside him. "I— I was so angry that I'd been lied to, that you had gotten roped up in it so young, and— I, Yukio that made me so angry."
"Nii-san?"
"You started exorcist training when you were, what, seven?" Rin looks at him, and he nods slowly. "I... I noticed something changed around then. I knew it was stressing you out, and I didn't know how to help. I felt... so useless as I watched my little brother grow up way too fast, watched you hold so many burdens and... It felt so unfair that I could continue life so carefreely while you were so stressed. Which, I guess, stressed me out," he laughs weakly.
"You— Nii-san, you were never useless," Yukio says quickly, before he hesitates again. "I... I honestly, I honestly felt the same. At some point I was so frustrated that I had to do all of this while you were living normally but— but that wasn't true. You were always paying attention, you were always there, supporting me. Waiting for me. I knew... I knew that you noticed. And how could I be mad at you when you were doing everything to help me? Well... some petty part of me still was, but,"
Rin lets out an amused huff, shoulder-bumping his twin lightly. "And that's valid."
"There it is— Your catchphrase finally makes an appearance," Yukio teases gently.
"It's not my catchphrase,"
Yukio shoots him a small grin. "It is."
"It's not—" Rin scoffs. "But if it was? It's valid."
It draws a chuckle from his brother, which makes him happy, but the smile on his lips soon drops.
"You shouldn't have had to do that," Rin whispers. "Any of that. You were just a kid. We still are."
"I... Nii-san, I've been seeing demons all my life, and... Dad said I could protect you." Yukio says. "I didn't want to be weak anymore."
"Yukio," Rin's brows furrow. "You were the only one who ever thought you were weak."
Yukio blinks at him. "What?"
"I've said it before; I rely on you." Rin says. "Because I know that I can. That you're reliable. That you're strong. I never once thought you were weak. And... I understand why dad offered to let you; you were understandably scared, and it gave you a way to protect yourself, like, a sense of security, or something. But, like... Surely there were other ways to do that, right?" Rin shakes his head. "I understand why, I just... I still think it was wrong. He should've— he shouldn't have let you start so young. You should've grown up properly."
Yukio is silent as he lets those words stew in his mind. Instinctively, he wants to deny them, say that he made his choice—
"Maybe," he finally says.
"That's— that's what made me so angry." Rin stutters, his voice wavering for a moment. "I... God, it's fucked up! And I... I was so mad, I just... I shouted all of that at him! I was— I blamed all of our problems on him, god, I was so fucking awful!" Rin hunches over, palms of his hands pressed to his eyes as they threaten to become watery again. "I didn't— I didn't mean to, but I did, I— and, and it was my fault that he got possessed!"
"Oh, god, Rin," he hears Yukio whisper beside him, horrified.
It makes him choke, and the tears begin to form. "It— it was my fault, I tried, I tried to take it back but I, like always I get so angry and I just, I just mess everything up!"
He feels a weight around his shoulders— Yukio has taken him into his arms, whispering soft shushes and rubbing his back.
"I..." Yukio begins hesitantly. "God, I want to blame you, Rin. I want to blame you, but I can't."
"You can." Rin protests weakly. "Because it was my fault."
"Maybe it was," Yukio says. "But... I forgive you. I forgive you because god knows you didn't want this to happen. If you— if you regret it so much, don't ever let it happen again."
Rin takes in a quivering breath and pulls himself from Yukio's arms, rising to stand in front of him. "I don't—" Rin let's out a wet, bitter laugh. "I don't want that. Ever again."
There's a brief pause, where Rin tries to wipe away a few stray tears. Yukio... Yukio has been holding them back this whole time, Rin realizes, seeing his brother's eyes red around the edges, yet his cheeks still dry.
That's no good, either.
"Dad told me to— to stop being such a crybaby, y'know? But how the hell am I supposed to do that now?" He asks, then shakes his head. "I don't... I don't think crying is a bad thing. I'm not saying we should be wallowing uselessly in despair or whatever, I just—" Rin chokes up. "Fuck, Yukio, we're just kids! We're allowed to fucking grieve!" He cries, tears spilling down his cheeks.
Yukio stares at him, gaping, before his eyes quickly become watery and his face scrunches up. He hunches over, shoulders shaking, as a few tears finally escape.
"How—" Yukio takes a shuddering breath. "What— what was he like?"
Rin swallows, closing his eyes for a moment. He lets out a somber laugh. "He was cool, damnit," he admits. "He protected me until the end." Rin tells him, his voice breaking.
And just like that, dam breaks, and Yukio begins to sob. Rin sits back down beside him, and they both gravitate into a hug, crying into each other's arms. They stay like that for a while, crying out all their pain, until they run out of tears to cry.
Yukio pulls back first, eyes red and glasses askew.
"I have a headache," he says, his voice hoarse from crying.
Rin laughs dryly in reply, but his brother's words roll in his mind. Maybe it was your fault, he said, but I forgive you.
"Good morning, Sir Pheles," The voice of Yukio calls out, and Mephisto raises an eyebrow at the greeting, Sir Pheles instead of Faust? Is his brother not around? But he turns around to greet the boy and finds that, no, Rin is right there next to him. Not only that...
A surprised guffaw escapes the demon's mouth when he spots the boy.
"My! Okumura-kun, whatever happened to your hair?" Mephisto asks, eyes wide.
Because the boy in question stands before him, looking like he hardly slept a wink, with bright aqua blue hair atop his head, messy, and sticking up in various directions.
Rin shrugs. "Didn't really get a chance to brush it," he says, and oh he knows that's not what Mephisto meant.
A grin slides onto Mephisto's lips. "What an interesting color choice,"
"Um, it's like... symbolic, or whatever," Rin reaches up and attempts to comb through his messy blue hair. Yukio rolls his eyes beside him.
"It surprised me as well," Yukio says. "He was awake before I was, and his hair was..." He gives a little shake of his head and sighs.
"Might I take this as we are all on the same page here then?" Mephisto asks, intrigued. He hadn't expected Rin to confess.
Rin raises an eyebrow. "Were you expecting me to not tell my little brother?" He asks, as if reading Mephisto's mind, then he gasps and puts a hand on his chest, as if scandalized. "For shame!"
Yukio makes a little sound that Mephisto is pretty sure is a laugh, but he hides it by coughing into his sleeve. "Yes, Rin told me what happened, so I explained everything." He clears his throat. "In any case, shall we get going? We don't want to be late for the entrance ceremony."
"Of course, of course," Mephisto nods, and with a snap of his fingers, a classy pink limousine rolls up beside them. "Shall we away?"
Rin makes a noise of awe. "Cool!" He grins, bouncing up to the car. He slides inside first, gawking at the extravagant interior.
Yukio, amused, enters after his brother and sits beside him. "Nii-san, you're way too excited,"
"No way! You're not excited enough!" Rin counters, as Mephisto slides in and the car begins to move. "Doesn't this make you feel fancy? It's like we're VIP! We're high society now," he grins.
"I hope you don't mind, Okumura-kun," Mephisto interrupts, leaning forward in interest. "I've placed you in the same class as your brother— I took a look at your grades and I am quite surprised! I hadn't pegged you for a genius,"
"I'm not a genius," Rin says, while Yukio says, "He's not a genius," at the same time.
Yukio continues. "He worked hard to get those grades."
"Well, I wouldn't have lasted a day if it weren't for Yukio helping me out," Rin shrugs. He distinctly remembers falling horribly behind in all of his classes in his last life— he was very determined not to let it happen again. Yukio gives him a proud look from the corner of his eye.
Mephisto's eyes drag between the two of them. "Well, I can't say I expected such grades from you regardless. You don't seem like the studious type."
"He's not," Yukio cuts in. "He hardly studies. I'm pretty sure he can just absorb information via sleeping on his books."
Rin snorts, a loud laugh escaping his lips. "It's like photosynthesis, except... with knowledge."
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
"But, yeah, if it wasn't for Yukio literally taping me to the chair and forcing me to do my work, I seriously doubt my grades would be as good as they are." Rin says with a shrug. A fond smile worms it's way on his lips.
He was serious when he said Yukio taped him to the chair— around their first year in middle school. He can still remember the look on Shiro's face when he walked in, eyes gone completely bug-eyed as he let out a loud bark of laughter, and Yukio's playfully smug grin.
"You told me to super glue you to the chair if I must." Yukio defends.
He did say that. Rin snorts.
"Ah, look," Mephisto turns his head out the window. "We can see the academy."
Rin and Yukio both look out the window, and Rin's eyes go wide. He remembers very vaguely how large and intricate True Cross was, and sure, he could always see it in the distance, but it's nothing compared to seeing it up close in person. "Holy shit,"
The limousine soon pulls to a stop, and when Rin makes to exit after Yukio, Mephisto grabs him by the sword swung over his shoulder and yanks him back, a startled noise escaping his lips.
"Oh, almost forgot!" Mephisto says innocently, handing him a folded uniform. "You have to change into your school uniform, Okumura-kun! You can change in here."
Rin slides back into the limousine and shuts the door, shooting a quick glare to the other demon, but he takes the uniform and begins removing his jacket.
"I'll come see you after the entrance ceremony, we'll talk then." Mephisto tells him, before he turns to look out the window as Rin changes. "My... What pretty cherry blossoms," he observes idly.
Rin changes quickly, and all that's left is the tie. I'll have to ask Yukio, he thinks, swinging his back over his shoulder again. Mephisto turns back to face him once he's done.
"You sure are full of surprises, Okumura-kun," He comments with a smirk. "I wonder how else you'll challenge my expectations?"
"Don't expect anything. Just don't have any expectations. Don't even think of me. Forget you even met me." Rin jokes dryly as he steps out of the car.
"No," Mephisto says after the door shuts. "I really don't think I will."
Okumura Rin truly was interesting.
A/N:
Wwwwwwwwwwas anyone expecting this? That Rin would confront Yukio and tell him about what happened? That he'd dye his hair blue? That Rin actually does well enough in school to be in the advanced course with his brother?
I always like writing the little traits that he inherited from his previous life, like his sense of humor, being more of a crybaby than his canon counterpart, or his sense of fashion, etc. It's interesting, I think. Aaand... I kinda wanted something to clearly differentiate him from his canon counterpart ssooo... blue hair! I think it's fun :)
Also I'm gonna die I keep forgetting to tell yall but I've making stuff for this fic. Like I made a little amv type thing like around ch2 and I was gonna mention it in the A/N but I keep forgetting dFHSAhjbfdbsd
Said amv can be found /watch?v=ITnVCvaliQw its specifically for this fic but like it's vague enough it could be for AoEx in general but yeah lmao. I draw some stuff for this fic sometimes too! All art related to this fic can be found at pitoumugis .tumblr dot com slash tagged/aoex-rebirth (fanfiction dot net REALLY makes it hard to share links to art...) thx for watching remember to like comment and subscribe I made this joke in chapter one already but forreal thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you'd like!