Chapter 18: Hot Coals
Continuation of "Doused". Finally forced this chapter out so I can actually continue to story.
"So, how long?" Shiro finally asked after nearly thirty minutes, when the bowl was full of thorns and spurs and Satan's legs were covered in bandages and stinging disinfectant.
Satan hummed and entertained the thought of pretending to not understand the vague question. But no, Yukio had just left the room to get more towels, and if he needed to take drastic action then he would rather do it without further traumatizing his son, "How long do you think?
"Long enough to know what faeries are."
Well that was a fair point, and pretty incriminating too. But Satan had one to match, "I didn't really know what the bastards looked like before today, I just guessed. They aren't exactly hard to identify, what with the wings. Anything that gets its sick fucking kicks out of kidnapping children is something I memorized, just in case it's actually real."
His voice dropped to a low growl, and he itched to burn the entire forest down just to be sure he killed them all. How dare they think themselves so superior as to try and even look at, much less kidnap his child. He would kill them all beyond dead, remind them of why the blue flames were so feared as he burned their existence into less than the nothing they already were, reduced to ash they could never come back from, but only after they suffered and screamed in a wash ofazurefireflamesblazeinfernopu-. The seal strained to hold the fire slowly eating at it, and for a moment Satan felt his inner warmth return.
With ease born of practice, he let go of his power and anger. "As for how long, well, for as long as I can remember. It wasn't hard to realize no one else saw those things, and you never seemed to react to them, so I kept my mouth shut." He looked away, a bitter, self-hating mask slipping onto his face, "I'm already enough of a problem child, don't want to add crazy to that list, eh?"
Shiro made a noise of acknowledgement, and pulled out the very last thorn thorn. The silence stretched awkwardly, until Satan huffed, "Hey, you were supposed to deny that 'problem child' part, you know."
"And why would I sin and lie?" Shiro said casually, and his lips twitched at the indignant squawk Rin made, "Besides, acknowledging a problem is the first step to fixing it."
If it was a fight the shitty priest wanted, it was a fight he would get, and Satan loved verbal fights almost as much as physical ones, "Just like how you've completely, one-hundred percent acknowledged that you've become the bane of society: a perverted old man?"
"You're pretty snarky today, aren't you?"
Check and mate. "And you're pretty damn careless today, letting Yukio disappear like that."
Shiro, to his credit, didn't flinch like Satan had been hoping he would. But his hands stilled mid-motion to wrap a final layer of gauze around his torn ankles. It was much subtler, but Satan heard the slight intake of air, saw the way the man's eyes clouded over, and he knew he had won, even as Shiro gave protest, "He just wanted to get something from inside the cabin. I didn't think anything could happen, not after I warded and cleansed the area."
"Yeah, well, assumptions are how kids get kidnapped by faeries."
Shiro did flinch at that. Only a little bit, but he still flinched.
Satan didn't feel nearly as happy about that as he thought he would.
"It seems I've been…remiss in my duties to educate you two. Even if I thought neither of you could see, it would have been for the best to teach you how to survive the demons."
"Yeah, it would have." Satan agreed, mocking but with less bite than he normally could muster, "But most demons don't really bother you if you don't bother them first, so it's not like you'll have to teach us that much."
"Demons are dangerous."
Platitudes and platitudes, and yet the man had willingly raised two, Satan noted idly. Granted, it was probably some pathetic human regret driving his actions, but he tried more than he had to, and he cared more than he had any right to. Besides, "Only if you piss them off first, usually. Unless they're an asshole, but that's the exception. It's humans that go out of their way to fuck with your life, you know."
"Rin-"
"Bullies, kidnappers, mob bosses, drug attics, rapists, murderers, cultists, idiots with nothing better to do, the list goes on and on." Shouting, screaming, chanting and praying, red fire that burned, wash itawaywithcleanblue- "There's a lot of people out there who would want to hurt little kids for no real reason other than that they can."
He had thought about this for a while, and, as much as he hated it, it was the best plan he could come up with. Yukio would never be as strong as a normal demon, not while he was so tragically human, and not when he preferred books to fighting, healing to hurting. And so…
Andsonoonecouldhurthisagain-
"Teach Yukio how to use a gun. I've seen them around the place, and I know you brought at least two with you, 'just in case' right? So teach him, because Yukio isn't ever going to be a fighter like me."
Satan had expected a lot of things to happen after his made his demands known. He had expected shouting, anger, or outright refusal. And so, he had a response for each, a way to lead the conversation until he got what he wanted. The road didn't matter, for the outcome was already determined.
"I would have done that even if you hadn't just done your best into guilting me into it."
That was an unexpected response, and not a pleasant one, even if it made Satan's life easier. That implied the Paladin thought they needed protection, which meant…what exactly? "…Why?"
"You and Yukio are almost ten now." Shiro continued, more to himself than anything, "That's still too young, but it'll have to do."
Shiro could tell that Rin was a half second from demanding answers, but-
"Dad, I brought more towels. Are all the thorns out?"
-Yukio walked into the room, arms burdened with tacky beach towels and Rin's mouth slowly closed.
"Yes, we just finished up. Put the towels over on the table and sit down. I have something important to tell you and Rin." Shiro asked, glad he could focus on Yukio and turn away from Rin's too-intense gaze for a moment to gather his wits.
Shiro didn't want to do this, not when he knew the names Rin had suffered and the lengths Yukio went. They had suffered together already, each responding to abuse in their own, unhealthy, way. No child, no matter how tough they acted or thought themselves, should know what he was about to tell them. But…
The letter was short, unremarkable, and cryptic, but it still threatened to shatter his world:
'Gehenna has grown restless without its azure king.'
…But he didn't have the luxury of hiding the world from them any longer.
"Dad, why do you look so…" The word 'serious' was on the tip of Yukio's tongue, but that didn't seem like enough. Not when his father, always light-hearted and smiling, looked ready to go into a hopeless battle like a hero from the shows he watched.
"Rin, Yukio, I'm sorry, but there's been something I haven't told you. I wanted to wait until you were much older, but things have changed. No matter what happens, I'm going to teach you about the demons you two can see, but I need to tell you something important beforehand. So what you learn won't color your opinions."
Shiro took a moment to breath in deeply and prepare himself. He closed his eyes for just a moment, and so he never saw how Rin's eyes widened with a revelation. A revelation carefully suppressed before the thought had even fully formed.
"I've never really told you about your parents before, your real, biological, parents."
When it was clear no one else would continue, Yukio tentatively muttered, "You said out mom was really brave, but really kind too. And that she fell in love with a bad man who tricked her."
If his acting didn't need to be prefect right now, Satan would have laughed at how perfectly backwards that summary was. But that was the only narrative a human could ever entertain, so he let it pass.
"Yes, your mother, for all her mistakes, was nothing if not the most honest person I've ever met. She was honest with everyone, especially herself, even when it was painful. A lot of people didn't like that about her, but that's what made her so special. Because she could accept the truth, she could live her life as she wanted, no matter what others tried to say."
Yukio made a confused face, though his question was a bit of a surprise. "What's so special about being honest with yourself?"
Before the shitty priest could open his mouth, Satan cut in. This was his territory, his own experiences, not some asshole who could never understand what it meant to have your world so lovingly taken apart. "As you get older, it gets…harder to admit when you're wrong, or don't know something. Or maybe you don't like something about yourself, like being lazy or scared of something, so you pretend you aren't that thing. Most people don't even realize they're doing it."
"I see." Yukio nodded seriously, not seeing how Shiro was staring at Satan as if he had grown a second head. He didn't understand, but that was fine. Yukio was too honest, too hungry for knowledge, to understand what it meant to lie for years and years to yourself. "And what about our dad? Why was he a bad person? Was he in the mob?"
It was such an innocent guess that Shiro almost managed a laugh around the rock sitting in his chest. Almost.
"If only it were that simple. No, he wasn't. Your father was a demon."
Out of all the reactions he had expected, Shiro still hadn't been mentally prepared enough (he never was) for the fallout. Rin had only looked vaguely surprised, as if he has always known he was something not-human, but Yukio…Yukio had reacted violently. The screaming, the shouting, it had all been things he had learned to expected from the explosive Rin, not Yukio, who always turned inward instead of lashing out. But maybe he should have expected it, when he knew what other children called Rin at school, and the fights that had resulted. Maybe Rin didn't care that he was a demon child because that was what he'd been labeled by society. But Yukio…
"You're lying, you're lying! Rin isn't a demon! He isn't!"
…Yukio had always tried to defend his brother however he could.
Yukio had run away, Rin obviously behind him, and the two were out of the cabin before Shiro had even gotten up. It was only because his associates hadn't taken off for the tree line that Shiro took his time following. They knew what was about to happen and the likely results, and even if the twins had traded expected reactions, it was still the same.
"That bad?" One of the Exorcists gathered by the door asked absently, though Shiro didn't respond with more than a grunt, too focused on locating the twins.
It wasn't hard, for out on the soft grass, Rin was already comforting Yukio. With an uncanny sixth-sense, Rin looked over his shoulder for a moment and glared viciously at the small gaggle of Exorcists by the open cabin door before turning back to the collapsed form of his brother. Shiro couldn't hear what they were saying, but knew that he would be welcome only when Rin deemed it so, and not a moment before. Otherwise the boy would be impossible to talk to, either freely spewing swears or talking in circles.
"What should we do?"
Shiro caught sight of bits of gauze and bandages peppering the grass.
He sighed.
"Find some more gauze for Rin's legs; that running probably opened the wounds. And re-ward the cabin. I don't have the mental fortitude needed if anyone tries to make a surprise visit."