Chapter 3: Line of Sight

Satan's daily lessons in the art of badassery begin. Kind of.

At barely five years old, Yukio learned what it was like to fear death.

Eyes filled with hate glared at Yukio, pinning him under an intense gaze that threatened to choke him. Lips were slightly pulled back to reveal the tips of too-sharp teeth, and added a certain feralness and unpredictability that was a horrifying combination. Yukio couldn't even make himself look away, terrified for his life to lose sight of the one looming over him for even a second. If he dared to look away, surely the beast before him would take advantage of the weakness and tear him apart.

And then the terrible look fell away within a second, slipping off like water and leaving not a trace behind. Yukio sighed in relief as his brother Rin returned to him, and not…whatever that had been. Voice still a little weak, he asked, "How you can make yourself so scary looking?"

Satan thought for a second and realized he didn't really know. It was just something that came naturally to him, so maybe the truth was the best answer: "Thousands of years of practice."

"But Rin, you're only as old as I am!"

Physical body wise at least, Satan thought flippantly, but there was still another important thing Yukio had left out; "You forget, I'm older by a couple minutes!" Yukio grumbled at Satan's cheeky grin, turning away with clear frustration and already ready to drop the subject out of spite. Knowing short attention spans intimately, Satan took pity on the boy, "Fine, fine, you do it like this. Look at me." A nod. "Now pretend I'm someone you really hate."

"But I don't hate anyone!"

"What about those bullies at school?"

The silence was deafening. Or it would have been if Satan hadn't groaned loudly a second into it, rocking back on his heels and palming his face.

"Yukio…" Satan shook his head, disappointed and fixed the boy with his most serious stare that wouldn't cause outright terror, "You have to stand up for yourself!"

"But I don't want to fight them like you-ah, I mean…"

And there was the crux of the problem. Normally, such passivism would have thrown Satan into a rage, but he could see traces of beautiful Yuri in Yukio growing every day. To solve things between humans and demons without violence, to have the will to not fall into hate, surely he was already seeing traces of that in his son. He just lacked the confidence in himself to form true resolve, and Satan wouldn't rest until he'd built Yukio's confidence until it at least matched Yuri's. Maybe even higher, if such a thing was possible. Small obstacles like the idiots at school would just be the first and hardest hurdle. From there, it'd be easy.

"It's fine, you don't have to fight anyone." In the future there was no way Satan wouldn't be changing his stance on that, but it wasn't as if Yukio even could just yet. Satan personally considered himself pretty awesome, and even he was only just getting a hang of his weak and clumsy body. He couldn't even properly break an arm anymore, and he'd tried really hard to do so in that one fight! Honestly, he was seriously disappointed in himself and had already started working out, ignoring the way it baffled the priests.

"But you have to stand up for yourself eventually, or I'll do it for you." Again, however many times it took for those idiots to get the message beaten into their skull. Or arms. He wouldn't mind getting a chance to try again in a few weeks after he'd built his muscle mass up. Did they think they won just because the teacher only ever seemed to get mad at him? Like he cared what that bitch said to him if she was so blind she couldn't even see the disastrous state her classroom was in just because a few snot-nosed brats could cry on will.

"Just make them think that messing with you isn't worth it." It was something Satan had done with the demons in the town, letting just enough of his aura out to keep most away without them even knowing what they were avoiding. Anything more dangerous and a tad smarter that wandered in he'd let the Paladin be useful for once and exterminate. But humans were a bit too dense to get a clue, sadly. "And if that doesn't work, well, I'll handle it."

"You don't have to…"

"Of course I do! It's my job to protect you!" From bullies, from demons, from the entire world if need be. He'd burn it all like his own dreams, his very life, had been if it came down to it. Nothing, not the entire army of exorcists, however few remained after his handiwork, would stop him from giving Yukio the life Yuri would have wished for him-!

Satan pushed the darkness that felt suspiciously like madness away, drowning it with Yukio's (Yuri's child, Yuri's precious gift to him) presence and a long-suffering sigh, "Come on, your turn! Give me a good glare, one that'll make those idiots piss themselves!"

Yukio grimaced at the language, knowing it was bad from how mad it made his dad. But that was just one of those things Rin would never ever budge on, no matter how much he was scolded, and he was almost as bad about it as he was about insisting on defending Yukio. He'd just accept it as one of the strange things about his brother, no matter how much he hated it, and move on.

Yukio breathed in deeply and did his best to picture the terrifying face Rin had shown him. Not that he'd ever forget it, but he'd do better if the image was in his mind as he tried to recreate it- just like he did when learning letters. Rin was really good at that and could even already read really well, so maybe that was the key. He imagined the face he'd show his big brother, terrible and so scary it'd even make him flinch back.

Goal in mind, Yukio glared at Rin.

A moment passed.

Satan burst out laughing.

"Rin!"

"You look like you're taking a shit!" He shouted between gasping cackles.

It wasn't a shout but an embarrassed whine of "Rin!" that made Satan laugh even harder. It took a solid minute for the demon to calm down, and by then Yukio was thoroughly red-faced and pouting.

"And now you just look like an angry kitten! Come here!" Yukio refused to move, but that was fine, Satan just physically pulled him closer until his son was practically in his lab. Maybe the pats to his head would have been comforting if Satan had been able to control his giggles, "You are just too adorable; I didn't know humans got so red!"

"'m not abdoro….adorable."

Satan chuckled at his precious struggling with even such a basic word. Everything he did…"Sure you aren't."

Yukio whined and tried to hide his face. It did nothing to stop Satan from fawning over him.

Shiro walked in, took stock of the state Yukio was in, and raised a brow, "What's all the noise about? What's wrong with Yukio?"

Yukio was so much like Yuri when she got frustrated with him, with reddened cheeks puffed in frustration and eyes that refused to look anywhere but straight ahead. "He's being perfect. My adorable lil'..."

Whatever was said trailed off into unintelligible cooings. And Shiro could only sigh with amusement at the entire thing. But Yukio looked as if he were about to explode from embarrassment, so it was his obligation to save him, "Rin, don't tease your brother too much."

"I'll do whatever I damn well please!"

"Language."

"Be something more than a piece of shit priest first!" Honestly, how dense was this man to not even realize what he was willingly housing?

"Language, Rin! You'll be a bad influence on Yukio at this rate!"

"Yukio is too perfect for that to ever happen. You know not to say the things I do, right? Well, at least not when the shitty priest is around…"

The back-and-forth was practically automatic, well-rehearsed and recited to the point Shiro had already almost given up hope on restraining Rin's vocabulary. Or controlling the child in any meaningful way at all. If he was this bad as a little kid, Shiro shuddered at the thought of an even more rebellious teen to deal with. But he could handle it. He'd beaten back Satan when he'd possessed Yuri's body and tried to attack him, so surely Rin couldn't possibly be worse?

"Why are you still here? Go cook lunch already!"

Shiro sighed, exasperated. At least Yukio was sure to be a good child, Rin would just…require work. Work and trial and error to figure out how to appease the demonic tendencies that slipped through the seals. Theoretically, demons should have had a high respect for hierarchy…"Rin, I am the adult here."

"Riiight."

…But Rin was an alpha male if he'd ever seen one. So, something else then, possibly…?

Satan waved away the shitty priest, deciding his presence was slowly ruining his good mood. "Then be an 'adult' and go make food. Unless you think we should be around the stove?"

The worst part was, Shiro couldn't even technically argue against that.