The 9th

Temporary Home

Rin woke up to a heavyweight on his leg, instinctively, he twitched his leg to try and shake it off. 

A semi-familiar head flew into the air and got close to his face, "You're awake! Don't go back to sleep!"

"Astaroth?..." The events from before came crashing back to him and he felt a deep shame for passing out. It was rude of him and un-prince like to leave all of the work to one person. 

A wisp of pink hair caught his eye and Rin would have bolted out of the bed had it not been for Astaroth, who held him down. 

Shima raised his hands and walked into plain sight, "Hey, it's just me! No ill intent, honest." 

Rin's tail whipped around and felt the surrounding areas, it settled onto a table and grabbed the sharpest object it could feel. 

Shima stiffened at the sight of the scalpel in Rin's tail's grasp, not knowing what else to do, he remained perfectly still. 

Astaroth gently took the object away from Rin, "Believe it or not... they helped us." 

Rin gave his brother a look and wrapped his tail around his arm. A stiff sorry left his lips.  

Shima rubbed the back of his head, "No big deal bro, I would have done the same." Shima winced internally at the lie. Who in their right minds would wake up wounded and immediately go to attack?

Rin stared at Shima for a second longer before turning to his brother. He slowly patted the demon's face, unsure if it was real. 

Astaroth gently took his long-nailed hand and wrapped it around his little brother's hand. 

Rin, no longer caring about keeping up his appearance, let the tears leak out of his eyes and pulled his brother into a hug. He wept in the embrace of his brother. 

Astaroth set his arms carefully on Rin's back and felt the younger's body shake. Rin never cried this much, he would have short breaks where he would cry, but those were more often out of frustration at himself or happiness. 

Shima stood awkwardly in the corner, unsure of what to do. Does he leave? Does he stay? He moved to go stand in a corner, but a sharp glare from Astaroth kept him put in his place next to the doors. Shima watched as the stone-cold demon he had traveled with looked down at his brother with tender care. Shima wonders if his brother ever looked at him like that. The blue-haired demon didn't seem to care that Shima was in the room, giving Shima a sense of trust. 

"It hurt......so much." Rin's voice was hoarse and cracked.

Rin's screams may not have echoed through the walls, but they still took a toll on his vocal cords.

Astaroth rubbed Rin's back, "I know, I know."

"I-I fought li-ike a dog. Th-he tortures. S-Samiel, he-" Rin fell into a coughing fit. His body shook as if it were about to fall apart.

Astaroth kept rubbing Rin's back and didn't let his brother go.

"I couldn't win. No matter what I did, I couldn't - I couldn't figure it out."

Rin stayed in his brother's hug for another sixteen minutes before he finished crying. He looked at his brother and smiled.

It wasn't the same smile Shima had seen before. It wasn't tiring, sad, menacing, sly, or malicious. It was sincere. Rin smiled in pure happiness.

"You're here. With me. And we're not in Blue Cross Territory." Rin gave his brother another hug, "You're actually here."

Izumo burst through the doors, "We're here too, and you, Mr. Prince, need a bandage change."

Astaroth growled at her, "To you, we are kings. We are kings to all but our father."

Kamiki waved her hand at him at moved to grab the bandages and chemicals but Shima could see the sweat run down her temples.

Astaroth could see it too and sat back. "You said 'we're'."

A bald head peeked around the doorway, "T-the other one would be me, you're Highness."

Astaroth stood up and towered above the glasses-faced person, "And who are you?"

The stranger shrunk back, "I-I'm Konekomaru, sir."

"Sire."

"So-sorry, sire."

Shima didn't know whether to cry in fear or in laughter, so he did both.

Rin called his brother back over to him and chastised him for bullying the poor human. "It's not very King-like, my dear brother, to pick on the weak."

Astaroth sighed and walked to Koneko, who was still shivering in the doorway. "I apologize for misusing my power. You helped my brother, I am grateful for that."

Koneko seemed frozen in his place, simply nodding along to what Astaroth said.

Astaroth was starting to think the human was broken and was about to take a long nail and pike his head when the short Munk ran across the room.

Astaroth turned sharply with a threat in his eyes, the human was running towards his brother. His apologies were said, and in demon culture, that meant fare was fare.

Koneko was shooing Kamiki away from the bandages. "You're doing it wrong Izumo! No, no, no! You can't apply that much cream! Have you grabbed the holy water-soaked bandages? They're demons, Kamiki, that'll hurt them!"

Astaroth found this quite amusing, but he didn't miss how severely Rin flinched at the mentioning of holy water. Nor did he miss how Rin reacted to the sound of pouring liquids. He wasn't sure if it was the water or his wounds.

Rin sat as stiff as he could while the bald one re-applied the white wrap. His back would heal in no time, with or without their treatments. He could already feel the scar tissue beginning to dissolve.

His blood would be poisoned for a bit due to the chemicals, but the pain was something he could handle.

Rin turned and took in time to take in his surroundings. He sent out low pulses of magic to scope the area. He was content with the surrounding objects.

Slowly, he tuned back into the argument that was happening between Koneko and Kamiki, part of him focusing on his brother, who was standing behind him, and the person standing in the corner.