Chapter 22: Hold in These Hands

I've been reading the manga a lot recently in an attempt to try and peace together some sort of long-term plot before I progress much more. Considering how in the manga there's a lot of other parties that act in direct relation to Satan himself, it would be a bit stupid of me to have them all act the same considering how Satan has been MIA since the Blue Night.

Yes, I do know that there are some MASSIVE contradictions in cannon later on (Section 13 gives me a migraine to just think about it…), but most of those will basically be ignored since it's already too late, and they'd ruin the story anyway. This was also originally going to be combined with the next chapter, but I needed to re-write it pretty much in its entirety, so I decided to post just this.

It is 2 a.m. and Satan is nursing a cup of hot cocoa, watching the Exorcists try and clean up what they can after Astaroth's little hissy fit when Shiro walks up to him and sets a sword that feels like hellfire in front of him, and Satan decides he's way too tired for this shit. They'd been stuck dealing with the police for hours, and then he'd been roped into doing major clean-up for several hours. That wasn't even counting the lecture the shitty priest had given him up until the minute said police had arrived, spewing things about "safety" and "common-sense" and "suicidal, reckless behavior". Now Satan just wanted to sleep because the barriers were back up (weak, but they would suffice) and he knew he would need all the strength he could find for the coming days/weeks/years/eternity.

"Fuck off until the morning, I wanna sleep." Satan muttered into his cup of blissful sweetness without even really listening. He really shouldn't be this tired, but cut off from his flames as he is, he loses his energy annoyingly fast, and the day has been emotionally draining.

Yukio just sighs into his cup of water, which he'd chosen over something, well, better, because apparently he didn't want to be up all night. Satan cut his eyes over to the clock and peered over at the time- 2:13 a.m. -and sighs. So much for that plan.

"No Rin, this is important." Shiro insisted, ignoring the way the boy rolls his eyes, but is too tired to give a real fight.

Satan proceeded to only half-listen to the shitty priest's rambling about the sword that holds the bulk of his powers. He stared with bleary eyes as the man went on and on about how important it is, about how the seal is weakening, and about becoming a 'true' demon if he draws it. He stared at the sword and the seal that's worn down to almost nothing, and knows he could easily pull his powers free from the blade any second, can feel it hum and sing to him like a lost friend, the power dancing with his own and caressing his soul.

It's annoying when he's trying to learn how to sleep with his eyes open.

And when the man starts talking about plans to leave, to uproot the life Satan has only just gotten comfortable with, over some delusional fear he has, Satan downed the rest of his drink and slammed it on the table to interrupt the shitty priest.

"No."

Shiro sputtered, "Rin-"

"I'm not leaving." Yukio was happy, and Yukio had a future he wanted to aim for. Yukio wanted to be a doctor, and whether that be for the mundane or supernatural, it didn't matter: all that did was that his son received a high-quality education to do whatever would make him happy. And so, "This room, this building, this entire damn town, is mine, ok? It's where Yukio is going to grow up and be happy, and if anyone comes after it, I'll destroy them."

"Rin, I'm sorry, but we can't do that. Now that Astaroth knows where you are, he'll-"

"He won't do a damn thing." The demon interrupted, wearing well-worn authority that forces the human to freeze, "I fought him, I won, and so he'll listen to me and fuck right off. And if you and your little 'posse' would actually do your jobs, then there won't be another incident. Or one in the first place."

There's going to be another fight, Satan can just tell by the way the shitty priest's eyes alight with that fickle inner strength he has. They may have agreed to live together in peace, but that hardly means they get along that well, and Satan will tear the man down the moment the need arises. He's done it plenty of times in the past, so he'll do it again. Very little, if anything, has changed between them.

But Yukio, ever-growing, has changed very much, and sees the argument with only a sigh, "Dad, Rin and I will be old enough to enter high school in a little less than two years. I know I said I hadn't decided on anything for certain yet, but isn't True Cross Academy one of the most heavily protected places in the country?"

That stops the two of them short, Satan with interest, and Shiro with slight surprise. The moment the words left Yukio's mouth, Satan knows exactly where to guide the conversation and how it'll all end. It must be strange for the human, Satan thinks, to see a child learn to manipulate so naturally. But Satan has known Yukio is very clever for some time now, more so than he (Satan just has eons of practice), and likely nearly as clever as his eldest siblings.

Shiro isn't an idiot, however, and pieces together what Yukio wants well enough and grimaces as he is led into a corner, "I know where you're going, but I doubt Rin could get in with his grades."

"Oi!"

"Relax, Rin." Shiro says and offers a truce in the form of a new mug of hot cocoa. Satan takes the nearly scalding mug with a grumble, but he'll keep his peace. For the moment.

Yukio accepted his own mug, finally giving into temptation, "True Cross Academy has some of the highest standards in the country, to the point that even I barely make the cut in some places. But besides that, Rin could probably get in on a multilingual scholarship, assuming True Cross has one."

"I could?"

Yukio looked over to his clueless brother with just the tiniest bit of envy that he found such things so easy that he never even considered it impressive, "How many languages do you know again? Three?"

"Four." Honestly it was probably close to forty, but a good number of those were considered dead languages, and even more were too obscure to explain how or why he had learned them.

"See?" Yukio sighed with a wave, "The headmaster has to be an Exorcist, so I'm sure he or she could pull some strings. And I can help Rin get his grades up."

"That's still two years." Shiro reiterated.

Satan rolled his eyes, "Then do your job."

"Ouch, you really aren't letting that one go, are you?"

"It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet!"

Satan snarled at the shitty priest's chuckle at that, almost overwhelmed with the familiar urge to sock the man in the face. How dare he laugh at the king of all demons like that! He would gouge those eyes out with his own broke glasses and then-

A hand ruffled Satan's hair and all thoughts fled his head except one:

"I'm not a damn cat!"

Shiro laughs and Rin ducked away from the contact, scrambling out of his chair and backing away with a venomous glare. The image was ruined with how he still clutched the cup of hot cocoa protectively to his chest, which he sipped after a moment. Angrily.

Shiro is not a very good man, he has made many mistakes in his life and has flexible morals at the best of times. But he doesn't want to see Rin devolve into a rabid dog, doesn't want to see Yukio to become a pawn beside his brother, but the two cling to each other. Rin even more so is vicious with how much he values the mundane, and without it…

"You really don't want to leave here, do you?"

…Rin would surely become something frightening when he entered Shiro's world.

Satan, realizing he was bunched up and unreasonably tense (like a cat, damn it all), straightened with a sip of his drink to cover the movement, "It's better to dig your heels in and refuse to look weak when you've got the advantage." To retreat was a weakness that demons just couldn't resist pouncing on, "And yes, we do have the advantage: I kicked Astaroth's sorry ass, which means that even if he blabs we'll still look strong enough no one will decide to attack us without some planning. And I seriously doubt he will, since what demon wants to admit that they got beaten up by a thirteen-year-old human? No, if Astaroth tries anything, it'll be by himself, and we already know how to prepare against him."

There were problems with that logic, just as there were problems with Yukio's proposed plan. Both of them were still young, Rin thought himself invincible and able to handle any threat that came his way, while Yukio believed Shiro to be near-perfect and able to protect them both forever. But-

"You two have really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Yes…"

"It's just common sense!"

Shiro sighed at the twin responses, and, knowing full well he was going to regret no matter what, so he might as well be just as selfish as he was on that day, in the cold and breathing the ash of the damned. "I make no promises, but we'll spend the next few days checking the town for any activity and setting up extra defenses. You and Yukio will have to stay inside and can't go anywhere without at least one of us accompanying you, but if we deem this town safe, then we'll see. However! If things ever change, or if I ever even think there might be a serious threat to you two, then we're leaving. We're also going to starting your training- your real training."

He didn't want to make Rin even more vicious, but hopefully, by some miracle, preserving a mundane homelife would balance him.

Satan eyed the human suspiciously but decided to take things at face-value until he got enough sleep and felt less horrible, "Then we're through here! Goodnight and good riddance!"

He nodded, stood, and waltzed back to his and Yukio's room. He would have to check every corner for his own peace of mind, and he needed to do that soon if he was going to be thorough.

Yukio, ignorant to all of this, only noticed that Rin had decided to be rude and leave his empty mug behind, "Rin, put up your cup!"

"Can't hear you, already half-asleep!"

"Rin!"

"Yukio~!"

The younger twin made to storm up the stairs, but stopped at the firm pressure on his uninjured shoulder. Shiro just shook his head with an exasperated smile, "Let him go, your brother is tired."

There were so many bags and lines on Shiro's face, Yukio realized suddenly. Shiro looked so tired, with something much deeper and heavier than just missing a night or two of sleep, and it haunted his very bones, wearing down his spirit until he had no choice but to smile or buckle under the pressure. His eyes were so very old, but filled with the desire to keep going.

Rin's eyes were the same sometimes, but a thousand times older and wearier. Just how long had his brother been hunting demons in some misguided attempt to protect him?

"Dad, what's actually going to happen now?"

"I don't want to force your brother to do anything, because that's when things can get…unpleasant with him." Rage might spark a fire that would leave a lot of people dead and Rin's head on a chopping block, "But to think he's been tapping into that cursed fire for who knows how long…Well, things have just gotten a lot more complicated."

"They usually do with Rin. Sometimes he just looks so…" Old, ancient, worn-out and crumbling with only a flicker of life remaining, blazing only when he say Yukio, as if Yukio was his entire universe, "So tired, and I wonder just how much he's been doing behind my- our backs in some misguided attempt to protect me…"

"Long enough to know how demons tend to fight and the reflexes to take down something stronger than himself." There had been no fear when Rin had attacked Astaroth, no regard for his own safety when one good hit would have torn the boy in two, and the confidence hadn't been misplaced either. Rin could read demons and knew their main weakness, their tails, without having ever been told, "I have a few things I think I can at least try to do, but all of that depends on what the demons do next. So, I need you to keep an eye on your brother and keep him out of trouble."

Yukio nodded, looking to the neglected sword on the table and can recognize that several dizzyingly high-level seals have been applied recently and rather crudely to the sword as a sort of stop-gap measure. There's no way that his father will be sleeping anytime soon with the refinement that's clearly needed if Rin wants to keep drawing on the flames without rotting away that vessel completely. They're both pushing themselves so very hard, so Yukio should just…

"I can only promise to try."

"That's all any of us can do when it come to Rin. Now go on, get to bed."