Wednesday and most of Thursday had passed like most any other day. However, things weren't back to normal like they should've been. I had nightmares the first night back and Yukio seemed troubled at how many times I had showered. When he would express his concerns, I would wave him off, giving him excuse after excuse. I knew that he would eventually see through my lies, and it made me extremely nervous and had even worsened my sleeping habits.

"Nii-san?" He had called from his bedroom on Thursday night. I had just gotten done with my third shower of the day and had figured he was worried again. He was, but not for the same reasons I'd figured. "At the circus, you said the medium was truthful?" I nodded, a bit apprehensive, "but he said you wanted to tell Dad something before he died," his eyes softened even further, "but you never got to."

I chewed on my lip and walked over to sit on my bed, my pain was almost nonexistent at this point, which I was grateful for. "Don't you have things you wished you'd told him?"

He shook his head, sadness in his eyes. "I was always open with Dad, whenever something happened, I would immediately turn to him... but I'm assuming you couldn't?" I sighed and he closed his eyes, "that's so horrible, Rin. Why couldn't you tell him? What was it?"

I simply stared at him and I could almost see the gears working behind his eyes. Finally, he breathed in sharply, "the same thing you won't tell me." He sat back on his bed, a whine escaping his lips. "That's so... so fucked up." I flinched at his words, but his tone wasn't angry, it was desperate. "You've been suffering for so long, and you couldn't even tell Dad? That's so wrong, and it must hurt a lot knowing you couldn't tell him." I was glad he wasn't looking at me because I could feel tears prickle in my eyes.

I bit down harshly on my lip, "It's in the past..."

Unlike Kuro, Yukio didn't take so well to that statement, "but that doesn't mean you can't tell me, Nii-san!" He sat back up and looked at me levelly. "Tell me so I can help you, so that you don't have to suffer anymore!" His eyes flashed with hidden pain and I watched as they grew misty.

All I could do was shake my head, my heart telling me to keep my lips sealed. I stood from my bed and walked out of the room, mentioning that I'd be downstairs making dinner if he needed me.

I couldn't bear to watch him cry.

.oOo.

The next day, I walked to cram school with Shiemi by my side. She was talking about some event that had happened in her class earlier when we both saw a group in the ornate hallway. We gave each other a look before we strolled over to the others.

"Ah! Okumura, Moriyama, what took so long? We've been waiting for you." Bon chided from next to us and I asked what was happening. He shrugged, "your brother asked us to stand out in the hallway and gather everyone in our class." Oh, did we do something wrong? The possibility of another mission was also on the table, but I highly doubted it.

A few minutes later, Yukio came out of his classroom, an apologetic look in his eyes. "Sorry guys, but I got bad news." My classmates and I looked around at each other, worried expressions becoming apparent. "Looks like your Friday night will be spent fixing what we never ended." He shifted a bag onto his shoulder and I recognized it from our past mission. "It turns out, some of you forgot to check if your grenades went off. So now, there are still demons in that building."

I groaned, all that hard work had gone to waste. Not to mention, I really wasn't in the mood to spend the next few hours sweating and huffing like a pig.

"Don't worry, there are significantly less of them, it'd only take two to three hours to do it right." He huffed, a small bit of irritation shining through. "'Normally, we'd have a few trained exorcists handle the mistake, but I've been instructed to have you guys fix it. Obviously, this was a crucial mistake, and something to make a lesson out of. So I'll need all of you to grab your exorcism gear and we'll head out right away.

I huffed, "should I go get Kuro?" My tall twin pondered for a moment and nodded.

"Yeah, why not, it wouldn't hurt to have him along."

I sighed, begrudgingly making my way to our dorm to retrieve the small feline.

.oOo.

"Yukio, duck!" I called and without hesitation he followed orders, just in time to avoid being shrouded in black mist. Like he had stated, we've been at this for a few hours, and while there were a lot less of them, the demons seemed to be coming out of nowhere.

"Kuro," I huffed when there didn't seem to be any of them left, "are there more?"

His ears wiggled and he nodded, a collective groan resonating throughout the room and we all waited until the pesky vermin reappeared.

"C'mon, that has to be it," Shima sure did complain a lot, but then again, we all were, we just never voiced it.

"I think we'll be safe if we use these now," Yukio dropped the bag from his shoulders. His voice was stern as he looked at us, "when you pull the pin on your respective gas bombs, check and then double check that they will detonate. Better yet, stay within a few meters until you see the gas coming out."

I raised my hand and Yukio shook his head, "go outside," was all he said. My tail slumped to the floor and I mumbled under my breath as I walked to the front door. It might be poisonous to Kuro and I, but that didn't mean I didn't want to watch them explode.

.oOo.

"I'm starving," I stated after we had all piled into the van and I heard a few voices express their hunger as well. Kuro even meowed, his stomach rumbling audibly. "Christ, Kuro, when did you eat last?"

"Last night at dinner, you and Yukio were running late this morning and didn't eat breakfast, so neither did I." My cheeks turned pink with shame and I apologized for neglecting him. He just waved his paw at me in dismissal.

"Can we stop somewhere, Sensei?"

Yukio shrugged, "actually, Sam and some of the altar boys would like us to come have dinner with them. Sam was born in America and it's quite close to a certain holiday called Thanksgiving." Teal eyes turned to me and I tried to keep my anxiety in check. "He was curious if you wanted to cook, Rin."

I smiled, "sure, but I wouldn't want to hold the other's back from having fun on their Friday night." I prayed that someone would protest and voice words of prior plans, but sadly, no one did. They did quite the opposite, really. Some of them had taken quite a liking to some of the altar boys, going as far as going on a first name basis with them.

"Alright, alright," Yukio said, a bright smile on his face. "Guess we're celebrating Thanksgiving tonight." Kuro nudged me and I gave him a worried look, he didn't seem any better off, which didn't help.

.oOo.

"Thank you guys for coming!" Sam stated when he opened the door, "I know you guys don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so I'm not going to push any sort of customs on you. I'm just happy that y'all came." I felt a small, genuine smile cross my lips at his confession, but my troubles quickly squashed my happiness.

"What do you eat for Thanksgiving?" My pink-haired friend inquired, clearly showing how hungry he was.

"Well. We normally have a roasted turkey with veggies and a ton of carbs, but I won't put you guys through gut-rot." He ushered us inside, my eyes immediately assessing the surroundings. "Rin," my eyes snapped up to meet his, "the other guys and I went out to the market to grab the ingredients for sukiyaki, we figured a communal dish would be as close to a Thanksgiving dinner as we could get." He smirked, his hand reaching up to ruffle my hair, "and I know how much you love it, too."

I did love it, but I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. I simply smiled and nodded, letting him chat as he lead us upstairs to the dining room. I spotted a figure I knew all too well and I darted into the kitchen, figuring that I'd be safer away from his eyes.

"Are you going to be okay, Rin?"

I nodded and scratched Kuro's head, "we're just here for dinner, and it's getting late, so we'll end up eating and leaving. As long as he doesn't pull anything while I'm alone in here..."

He growled, "I'm here with you, I'll protect you, Rin." I smiled at him, feeling a bit comforted by his words.

I tried to take my mind off my troubled thoughts by whistling a tune as I cooked. I mixed together the soy sauce, cooking sake, and sugar, letting it boil as I cut the vegetables and pork. Kuro seemed to relax a little, as well, his body vibrating slightly as he purred. Feeling guilty about starving him earlier, I gave him an extra bit of meat as an apology.

I was startled out of my cooking daze when someone walked up next to me. I yelped in fear and a hand grabbed the arm that was holding a knife. "Calm down, Nii-san, you'll end up hurting yourself." He didn't seem all that concerned however as he chuckled at my antics. "I just wanted to see how far you got, and because Shima's being a baby and apparently needs food now." He tsked and reached a hand up to pet Kuro, "I'm glad to see that you're back to normal, you had me worried for awhile there."

I just hummed and scrapped the rest of the food into the pot. "Dinner will be ready in five, tell Shima to quit his complaining or else I'll cut his portion in half."

He laughed, "it's a shareable dish, Nii-san, there aren't any set portions." I rolled my eyes playfully and swatted at him with a wooden spoon, telling him to get out of my kitchen.

I whistled as I lifted the pot off the burner, carefully making my way out into the dinning room. "Kids, dinner's ready," I said in a high pitched, motherly voice.

"Thank god," Shima patted his stomach and poised his chopsticks, waiting for me to set the hot dish on the table.

"Calm down, I didn't even bring everything out, yeesh!" I rolled my eyes when he whined, but I did as I said and went back to retrieve the last of the food.

Once seated, I kept my eyes away from certain individuals, instead, I focused my attention on Sam.

"A tradition we used to have back home was for everyone to say some they were thankful for before eating. Hence 'Thanksgiving.'" I could just sense Shima's irritation at being held back from the food, again, but he'd eat soon enough. "I'll start," Sam glanced around the room, meeting my eyes. "I'm thankful that I got to spend tonight with you folks. The monestary may not be the same place it was a few years ago," his eyes trailed over to where Yukio was sitting, "and we may not have certain people with us anymore. But for those of us here, we are alive and healthy, and I'm thankful for that."

Sam gestured to me and I looked around the table nervously. My eyes fell on Yukio and he gave me a toothy smile. My own lips turned upward at the corners and I chuckled, "happiness. I'm thankful that everyone is happy, and I hope it stays that was for a long time."