Hello,

This chapter still needs a bit of a revision on my part but I was anxious to get it up. I'd originally wanted to get it posted on Thanksgiving day. I know Thanksgiving can be a hard time for a lot of people right now. I hope, if you are one of those people, you know you have my support.

I apologize for missing Diwali, earlier this month, as well as Kinrō Kansha no Hi, which I've just found out was yesterday (missed it by 33 minutes!). Hanukkah is right around the corner, though, so I hope this can be an early gift for my Jewish readers (if I have any).

Chapter 5 – Let's Eat Together!

Ordinarily, Yukio would have been mortified to find himself waking up in Rin's bed, even after a night of nightmares. But his brother's body had been eating itself from the inside so he had other things to worry about in present, rather atypical circumstances.

The oppressive weight of heat produced by Rin's fever had woken Yukio long before his alarm was set to go off. By the time he had realized where the heat was coming from he hadn't needed it.

The sun hadn't come up yet so Yukio had been forced to turn on the lamp on his brother's nightstand to assess his deteriorating condition. Rin's forehead had been hot and clammy beneath Yukio's palm, his breath short, his heart rate abnormally high, and he'd been muttering incoherently.

The young doctor took his fussy brother's temperature and would have rushed him off to the ER if it weren't for the fact that Rin was a fire demon who had always run a little hotter than average.

40.12C. The reading did not stop Yukio from hissing a few choice expletives, however. If Rin were a regular human he might've suffered permanent brain damage at such a temperature. Yukio had quickly fished out an emergency cold compress from his first aid kit and applied it to his brother's forehead.

He'd instructed Kuro to tell Ukobach what was going on and to prepare something for Rin. Then he'd made a few quiet calls while he waited for Kuro to return, leaving his superiors voicemail explaining that he'd need to take the day off.

Yukio had added a few tablets to Rin's daily medications and, armed with a cup of lukewarm tea, spent the following three minutes gently trying to rouse his sick brother.

Rin wasn't all there when he finally woke up — not surprising — but by the time he'd finished drinking Ukobach's remedy (?) he was more drowsy than feverish. When his half demon twin had asked if he could go back to sleep, Yukio hadn't needed to think about his answer before he agreed. He'd left to drop off some papers and was only gone for about twenty minutes but by the time he got back, it was as though Rin hadn't woken at all.

No doubt this was the result of his brother going all the way to the fish market in the rain the other night.

Yukio's morning finished with a reminder to himself to tell Rin's doctor about this during their next visit.

Bon knew something was wrong the moment he realized Okumura-sensei was late to class.

Rin had looked particularly unwell last night. His tired eyes had been glazed and unfocused, he'd moved on unsteady legs, and — as much as Rin had tried to hide it — his body had been quivering with exertion.

When Bon had gotten home it'd been easy to tell himself that he'd done everything he could've and that it was the contrast of color between Rin's hair and face that had made him look so damn pale.

But when Tsubaki-sensei appeared instead of Okumura-sensei, Bon started to regret not doing more.

"Ehrm, let's see. Due to a medical emergency, Okumura-sensei couldn't make it to class today. So I'll be subbing for him, ok? Let's —"

Bon tuned out the rest.

Throughout the day, Rin's health went through a series of ups and downs. Yukio had been keeping a record of his brother's vitals, waking him up periodically to check on him, coax him to drink water, and so on. Just in case, the young teacher even had an emergency number on speed dial all afternoon.

If Rin needed to go to the ER again, Yukio was ready.

Yukio was not ready for Rin to start talking in his sleep.

"Hhhgc onky donkd 64 collecterz edidion is mmmnrf." His big brother started suddenly, trailed off, and shuffled a bit. Yukio turned around to look at him.

For a moment, Rin settled with a huge huff and continued, disturbingly audible from where Yukio sat at his desk. "Only fer nintendon't 69. Gam es gud!" Rin snuffled and muttered some garble he couldn't quite make out. "Content repeatedly tezted by bees. Needs onion pak 'n rm bm bm." Every time Rin's voice went from loopy fever muttering to suddenly, intensely coherent words, Yukio blinked (read: flinched). "144 players simultaneosly! Developed by —"

Yukio was even less ready for Rin to start talking in his sleep using four voices at the same goddamn time.

"—AAAAAAAAAAA."

Rin said nothing more after that.

Yukio recorded his brother's vitals several times in the span of a handful of minutes. Though Rin still wasn't in great condition, he hadn't improved much since Yukio's last recording 45 minutes earlier. Rin was, for all appearances, unwell but perfectly stable.

The young, prodigal exorcist wondered if this was something he should call the headmaster about.

He had a feeling Mephisto would just laugh at him, though.

Rin's dreams were interrupted loudly and abruptly by his cellphone. Half conscious, he took it off the nightstand, opened it, and put it to his ear.

"Mmph?"

"Okumura?!" Bon's voice — as well as a volley of similar variations of Rin's name — erupted from the phone with an alarm that was positively infectious.

The half demon jerked awake, pushing himself up, and was trying to ask his friends what was wrong when Konekomaru spoke over him. "Okumura-kun, are you OK?"

"Wh—"

Bon was already asking next. "Where are you? We're standing outside the abandoned boys dorm. Did you collapse again?"

"I'm—"

"We've been calling you all day! You and your brother! And no-one's answering the door. We can see the lights are on!" Shima exclaimed, sounding both dismayed and exasperated.

"Hang on—"

"What's the point in having a cell if you never answer it?" Izumo demanded.

"Literally what the fuck are you guys talking about?!" Rin snapped, growing impatient, "Speak clearly so I can understand!"

"Yuki-chan didn't come in today! Our substitute said he had an emergency to deal with, so we thought something had happened." While Shiemi spoke Rin looked over to his little brother's side of the room and found it uncharacteristically messy. It looked like Yukio had been in the middle of something when he got up and left. Jerking to his feet with a hissing sound, Rin stormed to the other side of the room and opened the closet beside the door. Yukio's exorcist jacket was still in place. And his wallet was still in his desk.

"Yukio's not picking up the phone?" He asked and found his brother's shoes, keys, and phone gone.

"No. We thought it was because something had happened to you," Shiemi told him, then added, "He left in a rush last night, too. Are you—"

The blond botanist was interrupted by the familiar whine of the front door opening, followed shortly by Yukio's voice. Rin listened blankly to the commotion on the other side and made his way over to the window. Unlatching it, he stuck his head out into the chilly autumn air and soon found both his friends and his missing brother in the dim lamplight. Relief made Rin feel a little light headed.

"Oi!" He called, "Yukio, what the hell are you doing so early in the morning?!"

"Morning?" Izumo muttered with her usual scowl whenever someone said something wrong.

When Yukio found him the tension in his shoulders visibly drained. "Nii-san! You're awake! Close the window before you get sick again. I'll be on my way up."

"So wait a minute, what are we doing?" Rin asked again, seated just on the other side of the serving counter in the old dorms. His hair was still a little wet, bangs pinned up and out of his eyes, and he smelled freshly of soap. Peppermint and rosemary seemed like suitable scents for the vibrant teen.

Not that Ryuji would ever admit that last part out loud.

Bon could tell just by looking at him that Rin had had a hard day, despite how lively he seemed. When he'd returned after checking on his brother, Okumura-sensei had asked that they take it easy tonight. Game nights like this were a typical reward for the students after a difficult week of exams and after so much time at a desk, they tended to get pretty rowdy.

"Do what you can to make him rest," Yukio had told them while Rin was in the shower, "He may act like he's fine, but don't be fooled. When I woke up this morning he had a dangerously high fever and it's still not quite gone yet."

Absently, Bon wondered if Rin was consciously acting like he was in perfect health or if it was a natural response. Either case meant he was still being cautious of them. That was justifiable, though. Bon knew for a fact the Kyoto branch was still picking up after the Impure King. After all, that had only happened a few weeks ago, now.

"You're going to sit there and tell us what to make without trying to come in here and help," he told the half demon sternly, aware of Okumura-sensei's quiet approval from a nearby table, where he was helping Shiemi.

"That sounds like a terrible idea," Rin deadpanned. "You literally can't even hold a knife."

Shima grinned. "Hate to say he's right, Bon. Even I'm better in the kitchen and all I can do is make cup noodles."

"I just don't understand how you could cut yourself four times in four seconds," Rin whispered with a touch of amazement. He was looking at the counter, wide-eyed, as if re-living the moment Bon had nicked his finger, startled himself, tripped, and flung the fillet knife into a wall the night before.

"Shut up! I want to learn!"

"Eh?"

"You owe me for all those times I've tutored you!" The student athlete pointed an accusing finger at the half demon, beat red with embarrassment.

"EH?"

"It's a actually a really fun game, Okumura-kun," Konekomaru commented with a chuckle. He pulled out his phone, typed something in, and then turned it over for Rin to see. "People have just started doing it recently at home and it's gone viral as a food network challenge." Rin leaned forward to watch the video, a slow smile creeping up on his face.

"So?" Bon prompted gruffly when the video had completed and the half demon still appeared a bit hesitant.

"Please, Rin? Will you teach us?"

Yukio watched his brother from their usual table as he directed his friends through the process of preparing dashi soup, takikomi gohan, and fried fish. At some point, Izumo had entered the fray to help too, leaving Yukio and Shiemi alone.

"No, not like — You just have to turn — Yeah, like that! No, no, no, go back — ah shit. Ukobach, help him." Watching his brother struggle to teach his friends something was amusing and almost satisfying.

"Oi, how does this look?" Rin swung his head around and extended himself up a bit to see what Kamiki-san was gesturing to and Yukio wasn't so far away that he couldn't hear his brother mutter under breath, "oh my god, how does Yukio do this."

Yukio had to cover his mouth to hide his mirth.

Shiemi laughed at his side.

"Is he asleep?"

"C-cute."

"Should we pause the movie?"

"We're not even 25 minutes in and he's already konked himself out."

"It can't be helped. It's a side effect of his medication, after all. He may be on a considerably lower dose now but after today it's no wonder he's tired."

"Guess that means you're in it for the long haul, Bon. I hope you went to the bathroom before you sat down."

"Don't worry about it, I'll just push him onto you if I need to go."

Rin felt safe and warm and, for the first time in ages, he felt full — actually full! He was cuddled up to someone, closely surrounded by friends, and he felt so at peace it was a wonder he was still aware enough to hear anything.

Hell, he was so at peace he could've been dead.

Attention drifted away from him when Shiemi asked Yukio if he would be off somewhere studying. A hand settled against Rin's forehead for a moment, followed shortly by that soft noise his little brother made whenever he was pleased with something.

"Yes," Yukio said, "But I'll be close by so just call if something happens."

Rin wasn't used to having a tail.

Rin's body wasn't used to having a tail.

Rin's mind wasn't used to having a tail.

Some days, he could completely forget he had it at all.

On others, his tail was so blatantly there he couldn't think about anything but the painful discomfort of having a limb that was, by all rights, not supposed to be there.

It went without saying that he'd had a lot of bad days recently.

Rin hadn't even been aware the pain was still there — apparently, he'd started acclimating to it — until it's absence woke him up a little.

Gentle fingers were stroking a small section of his troublesome tail. Rin was just thinking about how nice that felt when his tail flicked itself into someone's lap and he heard Shiemi squeak.

Something shifted beneath his temple and his head slid out of its decently comfy position.

"I'm ok!" Shiemi whispered on Rin's other side. "His tail moved suddenly, that's all."

With a sound somewhere between a grumble and groan, Rin shamelessly wiggled himself into a more comfortable position. He cuddled up against his newest victim and became aware that he had somehow acquired several victims during his nap when someone else moved their hand away from the crook of his arm and another person shifted near his leg.

"Oi. Okumura." That'd be Bon, pinned by the weight of Rin's upper body.

"Hmm?"

"You plannin' on watching any of these movies or are you just going to sleep this whole time?"

Rin didn't have it in him to feel guilty when he replied. "Can't help it. Feels so safe."

Bon didn't seem to know what to say to that.

After a few minutes, hands went back to stroking his tail. Though most of the pain usually lay in the knotted muscle at the base of Rin's spine, the gentle touch was soothing — like fingers in his hair.

It was lucky that Kuro had been there, otherwise his friends might have noticed it was him that was purring and not the cat sith.

Translation of what Rin said in his sleep: "Conky donk 64, collector's edition is now available only for nintendon't 69. Game is good. Content's been repeatedly tested by bees. Need n64 onion pak and n64 RUMBUMBUM. 144 players simultaneously! Developed by AAAAAAAAAAA." Based on the image.

I decided to stay in my apartment for Thanksgiving so I could study and while I don't normally partake in family festivities at this time of year, I do really enjoy watching my family have fun and letting conversation wash over me. There's just something so soothing and safe about being a quiet observer.

I literally dream of cuddle puddles like the one in this chapter.

Edit 2-7-19: There's a handful of stuff left unresolved here but I'm so emotionally burnt out from graduating, moving 3 times, and getting a job (to name a few) that I genuinely can't get the words together to end this properly. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth but it's not like anyone is keeping track of all my faults and failings online. Pushing out another chapter feels like trying to swallow a fist-sized sea urchin so until that feeling goes away, this is where the story ends. Thanks for reading!