Rin stood silently for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for some sort of trap to appear and catch him by surprise. Iblis and Astaroth had done nothing but warn him of Samael and his tricks. Rin stood there in the now clean, empty dormitory, and nothing else happened.
He was on edge, but his instincts weren't screaming to run. It must've been safe, right?
Removing his focus from the spot Samael had disappeared, he explored the rest of the dormitory. After checking the communal areas and nearby bathrooms, he moved to find a room. Deciding it was better to find a room on an upper floor, just in case someone wandered in. He could at least escape out a window before being discovered – or up to the roof. Eventually picking a random room on the first floor with a decent view outside that he could monitor the surrounding area.
The room was bare of anything but clean bed sheets and standard furniture, but he supposed that was fine; he was here temporarily, and then he would go back to Gehenna. Frowning, he turned towards the window and took in the orange sky as the sun was setting below the horizon – he didn't want to go back. He didn't particularly want to stay here either, but he wanted to remain in Assiah, where it wasn't dark and stale. Didn't want to go back to feeling Satan's influence crawling through his skin all the time. The sound of his stomach gurgling slowly snapped him from his thoughts. He should probably see what the Clown had left him with.
After checking the contents of the fridge and cupboards and finding that the clown had indeed left him with actual food and other ingredients to cook with, he settled on something simple to tide him over till the morning. He was tired after running around the city dodging exorcists, and seeing his brother didn't help matters.
Grabbing the eggs and some chicken cutlets along with a few different vegetables and some rice; he laid the ingredients out along the counter. He washed the rice and put it to a boil as he minced up the vegetables. He went through the motions as if he'd never been away. It was automatic, from the way he wielded the knife and finely minced the vegetables to the way he flipped the ingredients together in the pan. He unconsciously smiled as he cooked. It was one of the few things that made him feel human as he grew up, and even now after everything that happened – but was that what he wanted?
His smile dropped as he laid the omelette over the fried rice, the question still swirling around in his mind – did he want to feel human? He'd grown content with how things were in Gehenna. At least, he thought he had. Satan let him do whatever he wanted without reprimand. They constantly praised him for getting angry and destroying things. That was all he was good for, wasn't it?
Destruction.
The door to Mephisto's office burst open with force. The demon in question let out a drawn-out sigh without even needing to see who it was with the amount of cursing that followed.
"Shiro, you should take better care of yourself. Keep forcing your way into my office like that and you'll be finding yourself in a hospital bed again." The demon eyed the exorcist carefully before a grin graced his face. "To what do I owe this unannounced visit?"
Shiro ignored him and continued "Two weeks, it's been two weeks and there's still no sign of him."
"Ah, this again." He straightened as he faced Shiro "As I told you before, I have many eyes around the city keeping me posted – he is lying low or has returned to Gehenna. For now, there is little I can do." Resuming his interest in the paperwork on his desk, expecting Shiro to huff and leave again like he had the last time this had come up, but Shiro just stood there, eyes not leaving the demon king where he sat.
"Yeah, you did. But then I thought about it, nothing goes on in this city without you knowing about it, everything goes according to your plans and there is no way Rin could hide away from you of all people." He glared at the demon "You know exactly where he's hiding, don't you? I would even wager that you're helping him."
Mephisto couldn't help the grin that formed before he laughed.
"Well done, Shiro. It took you longer than I thought to catch on, but alas, I cannot give his location away just yet. Sent on a very special mission by Satan himself, it would be poor of me not to assist him."
Shiro frowned. He had a feeling Rin was here for something, but having it confirmed that Satan had sent him and Rin was willingly going along with it was disturbing. "What mission?" He straightened and looked back at the demon as his stomach fluttered under the tense atmosphere.
Mephisto thought for a moment, finger upon his chin. "Now, what did he say again? Ah yes! He's been sent to retrieve someone and take them back to Gehenna with him."
Shiro groaned, "Why do you always have to be so cryptic? Who is Rin here for?"
"Oh Shiro, you're no fun anymore!" Mephisto paused with a pout before it dropped and he continued "He's here for Amaimon it seems, Satan probably wishes to punish him for aiding Rin's escape before and relieve me of his loyalties. I still require Amaimon's services so I cannot allow that. But we can use the situation and Amaimon as bait to capture your wayward son…"
"That's a terrible idea! Rin's already angry with us for keeping secrets. You think he's going to take it lightly if we trick and capture him now?" Shiro gave a defeated sigh "I don't want to push him further into Satan's hands."
"Well, if he's out of control fighting Amaimon, I have every reason to capture him, don't you think?" He side-eyed Shiro from his desk "And once he is under our watch, you can finally have that father-son chat you've been wanting with no interruptions." Mephisto ended with a grin.
"That might work, provided none of the higher-ups gets involved."
"Yes, well, that will be the challenge. We have Shura cooperating but I'm sure there are others within our midst trying to sniff out a scandal. We also need to dispose of Iblis, who has been skulking around outside the main gates."
"Iblis is here as well?"
"Dear Shiro, from what I've heard she's practically mothering that Rin of yours, it's quite a funny thing to hear considering how hot-tempered she is." He chuckled at his humour "Trust me if Rin is here, Iblis is not far away. Satan wouldn't be so trusting to send him without proper supervision on his first outing to Assiah." Shiro practically snorted at the thought that even Satan had to send Rin with a chaperone to make sure he did as he was told.
"What do you plan to do about her?" Shiro looked at the demon questioningly.
"Oh, I have something up my sleeve, not to mention I have already planned a play date for our little Rin and Amaimon. I will require you to oversee matters, naturally." Shiro was about to interrupt before the demon shushed him and carried on. "The exwires will hold a small camping trip to test their abilities for future missions. Shura and Yukio will supervise – I want you and a small team of handpicked exorcists to be nearby. I'm not sure how much our Rin has grown in strength during his time in Gehenna, but I'd imagine he will give Amaimon a bit of trouble since he will have to hold back lest he lose his vessel. I would like Rin immobilised before Amaimon gets trapped in Gehenna."
Shiro nodded reluctantly.
"Good! I will forward the details to you before the end of the day. The camping trip is to be this weekend. So please ensure you're prepared."
Mephisto returned to his desk, and the door behind Shiro opened. Shiro grunted at the demon's less than tact methods for telling him to get lost. But despite Shiro not being too pleased about the plan, if it got Rin back, who was he to argue?
Hi, I'm still here.
I apologize this chapter is so short and probably written badly but I wanted to update and my brain doesn't want to work lately.
Not sure what's going on with lately - something about a move to Fictionpress or whatever. Just in case stuff goes wrong and doesn't transfer over this fic is cross posted on AO3 and Wattpad just in case you wanna find it again.