AN: Whew, I made it on my biweekly deadline! Er, well at least for those in American central time zone and further west...Anyways, enjoy the update!

"Got any two's Izumo?"

"Go fish."

"Hey Rin, got any two's?"

"God damnit Konekomaru!" I throw the two cards in his general direction just to make his life a little more difficult. Izumo only lets out a giggle but the other are flat out laughing. They're cheating, I just know it. After losing the last six games of Go Fish there's no other explanation.

Konekomaru picks the two cards off the floor and carefully places them into his hand, still chuckling softly.

It's about mid-morning and we're just killing time, Paku is the one who brought the cards. Not much else to do around here to be honest. True to Shima's word I woke up to Konekomaru, Paku, and Izumo being in their place. And as an added bonus, Kuro had joined us at some point during the night. The demon cat had somehow gotten into the hospital and curled up at the foot of my bed while I slept. The moment I woke up though he moved to my belly and he's stayed there ever since. It doesn't bother me since I'm still on my side but it's made playing card games a little more difficult. There's no way the nurses are ok with him being here but they've yet to say anything, just worked around him during the checkups.

The pain in my side has gotten better, no longer a sharp shooting pain but aching with some occasional sharp throbbing. Still, the silver lines haven't gone away. In fact they've done the opposite, now they've gotten longer and new tendrils have branched off. My midsection is covered in black marks with times the nurses checked them. Between that, the spider web pattern of silver, and kaleidoscope of purples, greens, and yellows of the bruising my body is starting to look like an abstract painting.

The nurses and doctors are nervous, I can tell that much. They keep saying they're not concerned but I can hear the whispers as they leave. It also doesn't help that early this morning I saw the nurses take a very pink looking urine sample from the catheter drainage bag at the end of my bed. So much for my kidney being ok, Yukio had to explain what that meant. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough to have a catheter and a bag of piss I had to ask my brother if said piss being pink was a bad thing.

Yukio left about an hour ago. The nurses did a brief check-up before discharging him and of course all his injuries had healed. No bruises, no broken skin, and he showed no problems from giving blood. Sure they poked and prodded at him for a moment, but in that moment a few young nurses had poked their heads in asking if they could "steal Mr. Okumura to run additional tests." I assumed these girls knew my brother before all this, probably more girls falling over themselves trying to get his attention. Jerk knew exactly what the tittering girls had meant too. He had sputtered and floundered for something to say but in the end the older nurse at his bedside had shooed them off threatening to assign them to cleaning bed pans.

Once they left he changed into his dirty clothes from the other night in record time. He left soon after saying he was going to shower and pack a bag. When I asked him why he said that he intended to stay here in the hospital with me.

"Noriko, got any 9's?"

"Nope! Go fish!" Konekomaru grabs a card from the messy pile on the stool. We'd situated it between my bed and Yukio's where they're sitting.

"Any Ja-" Paku's sentence is stopped when the door bursts open.

"I don't understand how you hide your tail!" A duffle bag goes flying into the corner of the room. "Or how you even wear pants!"

Yukio is standing in the doorway oozing frustration. His shoulders are heaving as he pants and his hair is disheveled. His t-shirt isn't tucked in but it doesn't hide that his jeans are nearly halfway down his thighs with his previously mentioned tail clearly visible behind him. I notice for the first time that it's the same dark brown color as his hair. The short, fine fur seems to be standing on end and the long fur at the tip is puffed up to at least three times its normal volume.

We sit in silence for a moment before we all explode into laughter, even Kuro who was asleep next to me is laughing. My side hurts from it but it's so worth it seeing my brother's face turn scarlet.

"I'm serious Rin!" He throws his arms up in frustration.

"I know, I know!" I manage before bursting into laughter again when my eyes land back on his tail, twitching and flicking to further convey his irritation. Yukio grumbles something and stalks over to an empty chair by his bed.

I wipe my eyes that had teared up from a mixture of mirth and pain. "Ok, ok I'm sorry Yukio." I take a deep breath to calm myself down. "It took me a while to be able to do much with my tail, at first I just shoved it down a pant leg."

"But it keeps moving!" He whines the last part like a little kid.

"I know! That's why I wore a belt around my chest to dad's funeral, it was to keep my tail in place and not look like I was smuggling snakes at the graveyard."

Yukio groans at that and throws an arm over his face.

"Sorry, it just takes time to be able to develop any control. It's like learning how to work another arm, weird and not easy. Wrapping it around yourself and keeping it still is a lot harder than it looks. As for the pants thing, have you seriously not noticed that I cut holes in all of mine? Jeeze it was the first thing I did after the secret was out so I didn't have to hide it or pay attention to it. Not exactly comfortable keeping it hidden all the time." I am so happy to not have to do that anymore. Tail cramps are a thing and they really suck. "It's not that bad though! It works as a great counterbalance when fighting! It's just sort of cat-like the rest of the time being in tune with your emotions." I flick my tail in emphasis at the end. It's been just hanging off the bed for the most part.

"Explains why he looked like a ticked off house cat when he stormed in here." Izumo mutters while re-organizing her cards.

There's silence for all of two seconds before we burst out laughing again.

It's not long after lunch when Suguro and Shima come back. It hasn't been more than six hours since the others got here and I'm admittedly worried by their lack of sleep. There's no way they're rested especially with how long they were up before. It also doesn't help those concerns that Shima comes in holding an energy drink and Suguro somehow looks grumpier than usual. I protest their lack of sleep but Shima just brushes it off saying they slept some after I was out.

Yukio asks where Sheimi is after a few moments. Suguro says she's stuck at the shop and that she said she'll be back as soon as possible. That worries me even more, what could possibly be going on at the shop that requires her attention?

After that Paku takes off for home. Izumo clearly wants her to stay but doesn't say anything as her friend waves goodbye.

"She's not even a Cram student anymore, it wouldn't be fair asking her to stay with us. She belongs at home with her family." She mumbles as the door closes behind her.

The rest of the afternoon is honestly boring. We play card games, sometimes someone pulls out a book, we go through the basic cable channels on TV, but everything feels off somehow. My friends seem tense, on edge. I swear Shima nearly fell out of his chair when his phone chimed for a text message. What I also notice is that they don't leave me and Yukio alone. Sure one or two will leave for a while to get a snack, take a walk, but there's always someone in the room with us.

I was starting to get annoyed.

I've been wanting to talk to Yukio for a while and even though it's not necessarily a private conversation I don't want to have it with an audience. I want to ask him about his new demonic attributes. Did his hearing get a little better like mine? Clearly his vision is still the same since he's kept his glasses. Does the fur from his tail travel up the small of his back too? What about his strength? I want to know how we're the same, how we're different.

I also want to know what he's thinking. I didn't take things that well when my powers were awoken. Of course I was upset about dad, but finding out I really was a demon like all those people said when I was growing up? That was what kept going through my head for the first week. Did the whole world know and I was the only one in the dark? Dad, Yukio, everyone at the church, old teachers, classmates, they either knew for a fact or suspected. Guilt, sadness, anger, betrayal, loss, self-loathing, all those feelings raged like a vicious storm and I alternated from wanting to scream myself hoarse, destroying anything I could get my hands on, and just collapsing on the floor and hoping the earth would swallow me up.

Yukio though, what's going through his mind? He knew I was a demon all along, so he has to be taking his transformation better than I did, right? And what about all the stuff with Ernst? Everything that happened when he was a Paladin? What about the fight?

We don't get a chance to talk until well after dark. Only one of the cafeterias are still running and Izumo says it's always busy. Plenty of staff members are still here and they hand out only a few options for each meal. So when Suguro, Konekomaru, and Izumo leave to get meals for us I know it'll be almost an hour before they're back. They leave Shima behind to watch us and sure enough the energy drink wears off leaving him passed out in the only decent chair in the room not 10 minutes after they leave.

Yukio waves a hand in front of his face, nothing. He pokes Shima a few times, still nothing. Yukio heaves a relieved sigh and turns to me.

"Well it seems like we finally have some time alone."

"About time, what's the deal with that?"

"I don't know, but something is definitely up." Yukio plops back down on his bed and pulls his tail into his lap. He made it clear he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of cutting a hole in his pants but did so anyways. He seems to take every opportunity to hold onto it and fidget with it now. He starts carding his fingers through it, breaking up any tangles he finds. A new nervous habit perhaps?

They are acting weird. Kuro looks up at me, speaking for the first time today.

"Well you've been awful quiet Kuro. I was wondering what was up."

At that the demon cat turns his head slowly, giving Yukio a hateful look. You SHOT Rin! How dare you! I would have never let you ride me knowing that! And that's AFTER you almost SHOT ME.

Yukio looks shocked, his tail slipping from his fingers and sliding back down onto the floor behind him. I let him sit in silence for a few seconds before laughing awkwardly and scratching at Kuro's favorite spot behind his ear in an attempt to ease the tension.

"Kuro, Kuro it's ok. It wasn't him, it was Satan." Kuro gives me a sidelong look, eyebrow raised in skepticism. "What! You saw everything that happened!" The demon cat slowly lays his head on his paws, maintaining eye contact the whole time. I roll my eyes.

"Kuro I'm sorry, really. I let things get to my head and blindly followed someone who made promises and claims that I should have known were too good to be true! I swear, I never wanted to hurt you."

But you almost did, doesn't matter if you wanted to or not. Kuro doesn't look over at him and leans until his back is to Yukio, effectively ending his part in the conversation. Well that explains why he's been so quiet.

I look up at Yukio to see him studying the floor tiles, his tail limp behind him. "We do need to talk about all of that you know? I really don't know anything about Ernst and why you helped him. Heck, I think I missed a lot of info in that short time I was blacked out. One moment I'm up on that torture device and the next I'm looking at my demon brother possessed by Satan." Yukio seems to lean forward more, trying to make himself smaller.

"Look, Rin, I know what I did was wrong but it was with good intentions." He says softly to the floor. "I know we need to talk about it but can…can we wait a bit? Something else seems to be going on, something that's being kept secret from us and I'd rather get that sorted out. I still need to get my thoughts together on everything else." Yukio looks up at that last part.

I nod, understanding what he needs. "What could be going on though?"

"I'm not sure to be honest." Yukio reaches behind him and pulls his tail back into his lap.

"Well, what about Sheimi? She never came back today, do you have any ideas as to why? I mean, the others said she'd come back as soon as she took care of whatever was going on at the shop."

Yukio starts fidgeting with his tail again as he thinks. I readjust as much as I can on my side since my shoulder is starting to go numb. I'm so sick of being on my side but I've yet to be able to get onto my back comfortably. The nurses tried to help me earlier but the pain came back full force once my back touched the bed. They tried to use pillows to ease the pain and keep the area free from contact, but it didn't work. In the end they put me back on my side and readjusted the pillows.

Yukio lets out a sigh after a minute of silence. "I don't know. She said the shop and gardens were fine when she got here last night when you were still out. Perhaps there's a lot of orders at the shop? Exorcists are still out in the city clearing out the lower level demons that came through the rips caused by the portal and making sure nothing stronger came with them."

"Do you think it has something to do with what's going on with the others? What they're hiding?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I haven't talked to anyone else. Haven't you noticed that every time I've gotten up to go to the bathroom or take a quick walk someone goes with me? They're keeping an eye on both of us and I think they're trying to keep me from talking to any staff members."

"That is weird…Well, what if we just ask them? Call them out?" I trust my friends, I really do. But this? This feels wrong, like there's something big going on and they're doing everything they can to keep us in the dark. This isn't right.

"I don't know, what if we're wrong? What if it's us they're worried about?"

"Well yeah of course they're worried about us, they're our friends. That's probably why they're hiding something."

Yukio shakes his head. "No Rin, that's not what I mean." He takes a deep breath. "What if it's us? What if it's who we are and what we've done that they're acting this way…what if they're afraid of us?"

I hold back a laugh. Afraid of us? No way that's it, they said they were fine! They apologized for acting the way they did before! They've accepted who I am, why would they feel differently now? Besides, if they were afraid of us why would they be acting this way? Wouldn't they distance themselves, try to get away?

The expression "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" comes mind.

No! I shake my head, trying to push that thought out. These people are my friends, there's no way that's true! Suguro carried me on his back to the hospital when he realized I was hurt! Shima stayed even though he was clearly uncomfortable! Konekomaru pushed away before, wouldn't he do that again? What about Sheimi and Izumo? Surely Izumo would be her usually blunt self and say it to my face!

My musings are cut short when Suguro, Konekomaru, and Izumo come in toting dinners for everyone. Each one carries two plastic to-go boxes in plastic bags. Shima jolts awake from his chair, immediately alert at the prospect of food. Konekomaru asks what dish he want's but I've already tuned them out. I take one last Yukio and see that he's plastered on a fake smile as he inspects the options for dinner. He doesn't really think that they're afraid of us, right?