Four more days.

Just four more days until their expedition(Rin felt so dumb calling it that, it wasn't like he was some sort of explorer like Christopher Columbus or something)launched to restart the world in the East.

Rin hated deadlines. The waiting was always murder on the ADHD he was usually able to quell with busywork around the town. But everyone wanted to handle things themselves and Rin already did everything he needed to do to prepare for the trip, so here he was pacing in his bedroom.

"Ah, there you are, Dear. Are you hungry?" Mephisto entered the room.

Rin shook his head. He was too nervous. He didn't want to eat even when his stomach growled at the thought of food.

Amaimon followed Mephisto in and sighed at their boyfriend. He's wear himself down like this of they let him keep it up.

"How about we go for a walk then?" Mephisto suggested. Rin needed to rid himself of that anxious energy or he wouldn't be able to eat and wouldn't be healthy enough to go on the expedition in a few days.

Rin finally nodded, putting his boots and jacket on and grabbing his mace, clipping it onto his belt to hang at his side.

He missed his sword, but it had finally broken on him a few seasons ago. The blacksmith they had couldn't fix it and Rin decided it was time for a change anyway. So, he'd chosen a mace–an ancient weapon that was actually very convenient for a zombie apocalypse and their blacksmith's favorite weapon to make–as his new weapon and began training with it. Blacksmiths were just as much a needed rarity as surgeons these days. They were lucky to even have the five they'd found and taken in. Those five each trained three apprentices to send out to their other settlements across the country once they were finished with their training. They had a blacksmith that had just completed his training that would keep that process going when they made their way to the East.

Rin followed his boyfriends out of their home, into the woods closest to the town. They avoided the traps they set out both for hunting and intruders, having memorized this train that they were just beginning to make clear through the underbrush of the forest. Rin would miss it. The tiny Robin's nests that sometimes fell from the trees and he'd take the eggs to the preschool teachers to put in their makeshift incubators for the children to observe.

Rin had heard that they used to do it with chicken eggs when things were normal in America, but the kids were just as fascinated with robins and the occasional blue jay.

He would miss this home. He wished his old family could see it. Everything he'd helped build. The way the sun shine on their buildings and contraptions they'd made themselves. They'd taken a trip to many county libraries in the cities, careful not to wake the dead that seemed to be in a trance from lack of body mass and food to eat running around to motivate to move. If they crept quietly, the dead stayed still where they'd apparently given up on further movement. They'd returned to their towns and had the documents and blueprints copied down and sent out to their other towns.

Things were going so well that sometimes, it scared Rin. Things and been going amazing when the last town he'd tried to help start went down in flames and droves of undead. Everytime he'd start to panic, Mephisto and Amaimon would be there. He was grateful for their patience with him, as well as how much they cared for him. He'd gotten lucky once again. He hoped he didn't have to keep cycling through this–losing everything, being on his own for a while, and then being taken in and falling in love with his saviors. It almost felt like he was Calypso, except eh didn't have to stay on an island and wait for wpople to come for him to fall in love with.

The thought made him hold in tighter to Mephisto and Amaimon's hands. He decide stop stop thinking so much and just take in the peaceful scenery around them, maybe look for fallen bird nests or rabbits caught in their traps, or maybe even a lucky deer that could serve as dinner and some nice new clothes.

They'd gotten really good at making new clothes out of whatever material was sewable and a lot of people sported animal fur and skins. It was almost comical how they had this town built and loved as normally and efficient as possible, yet most of them were dressed akin to cavemen. Rin preferred regular clothes they scavenged, but someone had made him a coyote cape as a gift for taking them and their family in and it was one of his favorite gifts. Apparently, their father had run one of those hunting shops and knew how to make rugs and caps and hats out of animal parts. Their father had passed down the art to the kids and now this person was able to make Rin a coyote cape with the coyote head made into a sort of hood to go over his head and the front legs hung over his shoulders. It was a kickass gift. Mephisto and Amaimon told him it made him look like a King of the Wild. Dorks.

Rin happens to glance over while he was walking and spotted something on a tree trunk. Something familiar. There was a symbol carved into the tree trunk and he actually passed it before stopping dead in his tracks.

The man backed up to examine the symbol closely. There's no way....

It looked exactly like the symbol he'd been teaching Sachi to carve into trees in the areas they'd already hunted in and should leave alone. It was so the animal population could get its numbers back up for the next season of hunting.

"There's no way...." He murmured to himself. Mephisto and Amaimon had stopped and were watching him in interest.

Rin purses his lips and suddenly walked in the direction the symbol pointed in. Hope was a hard thing to kill.

Mephisto and Amaimon silently followed him, not wanting to set him off in case this was something important to him.

Rin found another identical symbol still pointing in the same direction. He was so excited and fearfully hopeful that he didn't even stop to explain to his two lovers and instead followed the symbols.

Finally, at the base eon one carved tree, he spotted the body of a walker in pieces–cut at the knees and head lopped off–just the way he'd taught Sachi to do since she'd insisted on being able to help with the undead while Rin trained her.

Just as Rin looked back up, he met the surprised eyes of one Ryuji Suguro and froze. It felt like his heart stuttered to a stop too. His breath caught in his throat. Ryuji looked much the same, though his mouth had dropped open in shock.

They stared at each other for an unknown amount of time before Ryuji went to say something. "Holy–"

Rin rushed forward, stepping over the body between them to pull the man down to meet his lips. Ryuji had gotten taller, and even though Rin had too, the man seemed determined to always tower over him.

Rin loved it.

Luckily, with Mephisto being as freakishly tall as he was, Rin was used to kissing at this angle. Who knew, huh?

Rin sighed into the kiss and Ryuji wrapped his arms around the shorter man, pulling him as close as he could to him. Their bodies intertwined as they were finally reunited with each other.

When they separated, Ryuji smiled down at Rin and planted a loving kiss on his forehead. "You're still wearing the ring." He noticed, grasping Rin's hand and brushing his thumb over the diamond ring Rin could never bring himself to take off. He'd actually taken it form a jewelry store. It was silver with several small circular diamonds across the top.

"And you're still wearing that Pancho I gave you." Rin threw back, grinning at said Pancho draped over his fiancé's shoulders. It looked cozy, Rin hoped it helped Ryuji through all the Autumns and Winters he'd seen without Rin.

Ryuji leaned in for another kiss and Rin hummed happily into it, holding even tighter to his long-lost almost-husband. God, Rin never wanted to let go. He wanted to stay in this moment as long as possible. Ryuji was so warm, and solid, and wrapped around Rin like he'd keep him safe and protect him from everything that hurt. Secure, yet so gentle. Reassuring. Relieved.

When they separated with identical smiles, Ryuji finally looked past Rin at the two men who'd been following their beloved through the woods in his hurry. To their credit, Mephisto lifted a hand to wave and Amaimon stared back in his calm silence.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're Ryuji Suguro." Mephisto guessed dryly, ever the calm and collected one. Rin laughed, still holding onto Ryuji and turned to see them better.

"You'd be correct, yes. Ryuji, this is Mephisto and Amaimon. They found me and took me back to their home. We run it together. And we're also dating." Rin said as nonchalant as he could despite feeling his cheeks heat.

Ryuji nodded, chuckling. He planted another kiss at Rin's temple. "Sweetheart, you're gonna make the whole world fall for you at some point." He teased. Oh that asshole. He wasn't mad, but he just had to dig at Rin.

Godammit, Rin had missed Ryuji so much. He resisted kissing the man again to reassure himself he was really here and with Rin.

Mephisto stepped over the body in that annoyingly graceful way of his and Amaimon followed. They both went to shake hands with Ryuji, but he pulled them both in for a hug instead. He seemed to be around the same height as Mephisto now that Rin could compare them while they were close.

Hugging normally wasn't Ryuji's thing, so it surprised even Rin, but he got over it fast so he could laugh at the affronted squeak the sudden movement got from Amaimon.

"Thanks for taking care of him." Came Ryuji's muffled voice. Oh. God, that man was such a sap. Rin smiled softly before he remembered something.

"Wait, where's Sachi?!" He cried. Ryuji grabbed his hand and led them further
into the trees until they came upon a small camp with two tents, a small campfire, and a couple logs to sit on around said fire.

"Sachi!" Ryuji called. The little girl sitting at the fire sharpening her short sword with a rock looked up and blew long, dark hair out of her face to see what her dad wanted. Her jaw dropped when she saw Rin and in a second, she hopped up and rushed into Rin's arms. She was no longer a tiny little girl barely out of her toddler years from when Rin had last seen her. She should have been almost nine, maybe by now? Honestly, Rin had given up on counting the years and they mainly went by seasons at this point. They needed to keep track of the seasonal farming, after all.

Sachi was a beautiful little girl–slanted gold eyes like her mother and a smile that was a perfect copy of all the Shima brothers. Her skin was tanned form being outside so often, just like Rin's. Her long hair was straight like her mom's, but dark like her dad's. There was an adorable spill of freckles across her cheeks and nose.

"I said we'd find you again, Daddy! I told them! I left the signs on the trees everywhere we went just in case, but some places didn't have trees around, so I couldn't put them there!" Sachi explained in a hurry, hugging Rin as tight as she could. She was a strong little kid, he was almost suffocating in her deathgrip.

Rin stood, picking her up and holding her just like he used to. Sachi giggled and held on to him. Rin turned around and kissed Ryuji again before facing Mephisto and Amaimon.

"Mephisto, Amaimon, this is my Sweet Baby Angel Sachi." He introduced. He'd dreamt of this moment for so long and now it was here and he was so close to crying that it wasn't even funny. He was honestly surprised he hadn't already started crying.

"Wait, is that who I think it is?" A familiar voice wondered as a dark-haired man came out of the woods at the opposite end of the small camp. Once Shima saw Rin's face, he dropped his firewood to run over and envelope both Rin and Sachi in a tight hug.

Sachi giggled. "Daddy's home!"

"I can see that, Sweetie!" Shima replied as he pulled back to look at Rin. Now that she was older, Sachi looked so much like Shima that Rin wouldn't be surprised if people thought she was his daughter.

"God, where have you been all this time?!" Shima asked incredulously.

Rin gave a ragged laugh. "So many places, Shima."

"Did you go back to all the places we've stayed since we docked in America?" The man questioned.

Rin rolled his eyes. "Of course I did! I went to all of them so many times that I've memorized the trail between all of them. Eventually I just stayed in the Wisconsin and hated my life for a while until Mephisto and Amaimon found me. Apparently my heartbroken wailing was keeping any survivors left around the city away from the ship because they thought it was haunted. Not what I meant to do, but useful."

"Wow, so you were alone for a while? That's really sad, man. I guess we just kept missing each other, huh? What are the odds?" Shima marveled. He finally noticed the two men, presumably the ones Rin mentioned, standing next to Rin and Ryuji.

Mephisto skeptically went to offer his hand again and was once more surprised by a hug. He shrugged and hugged Shima back. Amaimon looked a little more miffed, but was prepared to cover up squeak this time.

This was the happiest moment of Rin's life. He wished everyone else could be here too, but the ones he'd loved the most were here again, he could just tell that his twin was at least still alive, and that was enough for him. He wasn't foolish enough to ask for more from whatever forces controlled the universe.

Rin looked at Ryuji and Shima pleading. "Come home with us." He insisted. "We've got a whole town of dependable people and plenty of space to sleep and plenty of food to eat. No one starves and we have enough food in stores for a few extra people."

"Babe you don't have to sell me on wherever you're staying, I'll follow you wherever you go." Ryuji silenced him with a kiss and Sachi fake-gagged. Mephisto caught her expression and snickered. He reached for her and she let him hold her on his hip.

"Hello there, Dear." He greeted while Rin re-familiarized himself with Ryuji and Shima.

"Hi. You look weird. Like how my dad looks. Can you do what Daddy does too?" Sachi greeted curiously, looking at his pointed ears, slitted eyes, and fangs. The man chuckled.

"We don't have the same powers as Rin, but Amaimon and I do have powers of our own." He answered.

"Cool." Sachi declared, reaching to have Amaimon hold her next. He looked flustered, but didn't drop her, so he figured he was doing okay. Kids usually got weirded out by him and stayed away. What was he supposed to do with a mini-human?

"Don't freak out, I'm just a kid. And I don't have my sword on me." Sachi comforted him, patting his head.

He almost looked insulted at being patronized by a child, but this was Rin's daughter that he loved with everything he had, so he just went with it. "Er, thank you, I guess."

"You're welcome!" Sachi said brightly.

§~•~§~•~§

Shima offered to watch Sachi in the room he was given to stay in until they could complete the latest house they'd been building. He winked at Rin and Ryuji as he set up a card game for him and Sachi to play. Both flushed red. Mephisto and Amaimon both chuckled and left the two to their own devices, staying in the guest bedroom downstairs.