These chapter titles might not all be relevant to the chapters they Prelude, they'll just be memes, song titles, and pop culture references.

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When he saw Mephisto amongst the gravestones, Rin almost turned to Yukio and asked who the hell invited a clown to their father's funeral.

"Ah, Okumura Rin, at last. I've waited a long time to meet you." The man said, poison-green eyes taking in the boy before him. Shorter than he'd expected, but the boy's mother had been an unfortunate height.

And.her oldest son was her spitting image. Sapphire-blue eyes glaring up at him just like Yuri used to. Yuri's softer features hardened just so by Satan's. Messy black hair in short curls and waves reminscent of Yuri.

Yukio looked more like Satan and Shiro, but there were still similarities between the two boys. Interesting. He wondered if anyone in the Grigori had ever made the connection. Probably not if they hadn't taken the younger twin and tossed him in a cell or a lab. In fact, they'd probably assumed Yukio was the result of one of Shiro's many one night stands from his younger days. Mephisto never would have imagined those would actually save a child's life, but here they were.

"I am Mephisto Pheles, Director of Japan Branch of the Order of the Knights of True Cross. I'm also your legal guardian now that Shiro's met his end, as per the deal we made." He introduced himself, bowing as his cape flared. Perfect!

Rin only raised an unimpressed eyebrow while his twin narrowed his eyes. Ouch, tough crowd.

"You see, Shiro and I made a deal when you two were born, just little babes. If he were to ever falter and get possessed by Satan again, I'd take you in until you were of legal age. Unfortunately, that's a personal matter and I'm here on orders." Mephisto explained.

Rin frowned and so did Yukio. That didn't sound good. Ah, there was the combined glared of Egin and Fujimoto in this frowns and narrowed eyes and crossed arms. So familiar, yet so new.

"You have two options: Kill us and run, or turn yourself in right here and be executed by the Order once they find out who you are. Oh, and there's the option of suicide, so I suppose there's three options." The man said all of this while smiling genially.

Surprisingly, it was Yukio who almost launched himself at the man to deliver a right hook to the jaw. Rin caught him and held him back, shaking his head before turning back to Mephisto.

"Eat shit, clown. My dad just died to keep me alive and my little brother spent his entire childhood training to protect me. I'm not wasting that. Let me become an Exorcist." He said firmly. If Yukio hadn't been there, Rin probably would've decked Mephisto himself. But, he was the big brother and had to be the responsible one at least once in a while.

Mephisto burst into loud, obnoxious laughter, drawing several confused looks from the Exorcists surrounding them.

"You?! Become an Exorcist?!" He wheezed. The boy didn't budge, flat expression watching the guy dressed as a clown laugh at his demand. Yukio backed him up with the same expression and position. They really did look like twins when they mirrored each other like that....

Mephisto finally realized they weren't joking. "Oh, you were serious. Well, alright then! What would you do if you became an Exorcist, Rin?" Mephisto wondered.

"I'm gonna take that son of a bitch Satan down for giving me a shit hand. We'll see how he likes it on the other end of the sword." Rin answered immediately.

"Oh?" The Director raised a curious brow. "Well, that sounds very interesting and it's been rather boring since you went home with Shiro all those years ago, so I'll accept that bargain! You will attend my school starting Monday and attend the Exorcist Cram School to learn with other trainees. I hope you're prepared to decieve all of your classmates, Rin Okumura. It's going to be a tough run for you from here on out." The man grinned wide despite the foreboding words he delivered.

"Please tell me this is all a joke." Rin sighed, as if he already knew it wasn't. Interesting. Mephisto expected him to laugh it off and insist that this joke was a terrible one. Yet, he got no such reaction.

"Pheles or the fact that he's our legal guardian? Or the fact that you have to attend a rich preppy highschool now?" Yukio asked. The Time Lord narrowed his eyes at the younger, who stared him in the eyes without faltering. Shiro had raised a couple of headstrong boys, how troublesome!

"All of them." Rin answered.

"He really is the Director of Japan Branch, and he used to work with Dad. Are you sure he's not lying about that deal, though?" Yukio questioned hopefully. Rin nodded, a sour look twisting his features at the confirmation.

"Damnit, Dad." Yukio cursed quietly. How did Shiro have their best interests at heart and yet still manage to screw them both over so thoroughly? Having Pheles as a legal guardian would likely end in several charges of child neglect that would definitely be swept under an expensive rug. That just made Yukio's job even harder now. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt the telltale signs of an oncoming headache behind his eyes.

Mephisto snickered. What an interesting pair these boys were.

"Can you tell when people are lying, by any chance?" He inquired curiously at Rin.

Rin eyed him suspiciously, but eventually sighed again. "If you're not lying about anything else, I suppose we're stuck with you." Yukio scowled at the acknowledgement. Were they sure Yukio was the younger brother? He was set on protecting his older brother even if it meant punching his boss and probably getting thrown in a cell for a night or two for it, plus marks for insubordination and attacking a superior on his record. That was some impressive drive, there!

"Yes, I can tell when people are lying to me. I can....kind of feel how they feel. Well, it's more like I copy it. If someone's nervous, I get pinpricks in my hands and I get nervous too." Rin explained hesitantly.

"And how long have you been able to do this?" Mephisto asked.

"For as long as I can remember. Dad used to have a hard time being around me and I'd always pick up on it, so I'd hide somewhere in the Monastery or the backyard to get away from it. Always made me feel sick to my stomach." Rin responded, looking self-consciously down at the grave they'd buried Shiro's ashes in.

Yukio grasped his hand, squeezing lightly. Rin squeezed back and his twin let go. Yukio hated being touched, but he'd never hesitated to reach out to Rin before and he didn't now. It was good that some things never changed. Rin didn't know what he'd do without Yukio's support. He'd be totally lost–a misguided mess.

"Faszinierend! I did think it was strange that your mother carried you to full term. You see–"

"Can we talk inside please, it's miserable out here." Yukio requested abruptly, knowing the Director loved to talk a lot about the things he was interested in. Mephisto let him get away with the lack of manners the younger seemed to have today only because he was undoubtedly stressed due to the situation at hand. He may have Ben trained to be a perfect solider, but he was still a child. A few mishaps were a given, as long as it wasn't too severe. He was lucky Mephisto was much less heartless than the Grigori. They had no regard for the very race they were trying to protect, elderly or newborn.

"Yes, of course." He counted to three in German and then snapped and they reappeared with a poof of purple perfume and multicolored confetti inside the entryway of the Monastery. Yukio put away his and Rin's umbrellas and Mephisto and Yukio sat down in the barren living room with a couch, a loveseat, and a chair that were all equally bettered and just not very soft anymore. The coffee table had plenty of scratches too, but it came with those when they got it at a yard sale and only gained more over the years.

Rin went into the kitchen to make tea(coffee for Yukio because he needed it to stay sane)and maybe whip up a snack or two. Rin had been taught manners for guests even though they were very rare in his childhood home. It was good he'd worked at a tea shop once so he'd learned to make several different kinds of teas perfectly. Mephisto seemed like he'd be picky when it came to tea and snacks.

He reentered the room with a tray of tea, coffee, and snacks. He sat down next to Yukio on the couch and facing Mephisto, who was sat in the worn, raggedy chair Shiro used to love. It felt like an insult to let him sit there. Shiro was an ass, but this guy just seemed like he'd be worse.

"Ah, thank you, Rin. At least Shiro taught you some decent manners." He thanked. Rin snorted.

"No, I learned from an old lady down the street who used to run a tea shop until her son died in the army and she moved in with his widow to help her take care of the baby she'd just had. She used to tell me that food and warm drinks always calm people down." He recalled.

"You can remember that easily but you can't remember simple formulas for math." Yukio grumbled. Rin lightly smacked him on the leg and poured himself tea, but didn't grab any of the snacks. He couldn't eat with his stomach twisting as he remembered all the times he'd picked up on Shiro's inability to deal with him over the years thanks to this strange ability.

"As I was saying, I thought it strange that your mother carried you to full term. Normally, with a human woman carrying a demon's child–especially the child of a malevolent high-level demon–the demon child will eat the mother from the inside out and they usually die when exposed to outside elements and left on their own. Very few have ever made it past that point in life, and they're either taken in by animals or they were just strong enough to follow their instincts and keep themselves alive. You, however, didn't do any of those things." Mephisto explained, sipping at some tea and humming in contentment at the flavor.

"If you've got this empathy-like ability and you didn't eat your mother or brother, I wonder if that means you fed off of her emotions in the womb? Pregnancy hormones would've ramped them up plenty for you to endlessly feed off of them while you grew. It was a surprise that your little brother even had a full body and wasn't a half-formed fetus. I wonder if that's because you didn't need as much sustenance from your mother's body as you formed? It's an interesting theory, to say the least." Mephisto recalled. "Though, that still wasn't enough to save little Yukio when he was delivered." He commented offhandedly.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Yukio questioned.

"Did your father tell you nothing?" The twins regarded him with matching deadpans and the Time Lord sighed. "Damnit , Shiro, you just couldn't leave this world without also leaving a mess for me, could you?" The man grumbled.

Mephisto sat forward some. "Yukio, you were stillborn for the first few minutes after you were delivered. Your brother was bouncing around like a blue flaming Pachinko ball and the Paladin before your father ordered his assistant to open your eyes. If they were blue, they'd kill you. Your poor mother was a mess, insisting they give you back so she could check instead, but they refused. Rin stepped in at that point and burned the man holding Yukio to a crisp and then burned the Paladin when he shot an arrow through Rin's side. I assume little Rin was acting off of pure instincts. His mother was upset and channelling it directly at anyone who would listen, that's like taking an order from a superior–Get rid of the threat." Mephisto recalled, incredulous that Shiro hadn't actually told the twins anything of their birth.

"As soon as Rin touched you, you were able to breathe and that was when you were given the ability to see demons for the rest of your life. Not long after, your father ran away with you two and your mother in tow, but she died during the postpartum period and Shiro scattered her ashes in the ocean and came back to me when all the commotion died down. The whole operation was swept under the rug and there are very few people alive who know of it. Because of a previous deal we had, I ordered Shiro to raise you right after I gave the Grigori a story that painted him as the hero of the Blue Night and he was instated as the Paladin. I worded it as if I wanted him to raise you as a weapon for the Order, just in case they had any witnesses or a way to tell if I'm lying or not when they inevitably find out about you. There will most definitely be a trial at some point and you will have to bargain for your life." Mephisto finished, drinking the remainder of his tea as the twins digested that chunk of information. He still couldn't believe Shiro didn't even tell at least Yukio about their birth or how their mother died. That was just cruel, wasn't it?

"So, he didn't want us in the first place." Rin deduced after a few moment of heavy silence, a wry smile on his face.

It was telling that that was the thing he latched onto out of everything Mephisto had just told them. Shiro, you were a bastard to the end. May you rest in your grave made of lies and the tears of the children you were supposed to raise. I used to respect you for your tenacity. All you've left to respect now is how big of an asshole you were.

"He was going run away and leave the Order behind forever." Mephisto answered honestly with a grimace. "But I forced him to stay. I knew he wasn't exactly parent material, but I can see that I really underestimated his ability to hurt people when I sent you home with him." Mephisto didn't care much about the children's shattered emotional health, but damn, Shiro had finally managed to surprise him! He'd ruined the children of the woman he'd loved. This was the opposite of what Mephisto thought he'd see when he came to retrieve the boys after Shiro's inevitable demise.

Shiro had had a plan, but no one could figure it out because it was a great big mess. He clearly wasn't as good at planning long-term as Mephisto was. After all, look who won the deal with his plan still intact and ongoing perfectly: Mephisto. Although, he supposed that might be a little unfair, he'd had thousands of years to master planning out the future and Shiro had always been a reckless, loveless mess from the start, even when he was around the soft-hearted Yuri and given a daughter to take care of when they were both still alive. Granted the little rascal was a wild child, but if she'd been loved, she could've turned out a better person than she ended up as. A shame.

"Well, this has turned out be very....enlightening. Rin, I'll have you take the entrance Exam tomorrow to see what classes you qualify for." Mephisto said, standing up.

Rin frowned. "Don't expect to be impressed." He muttered.

"You can't possibly be that bad, Dear. Both of your biological parents were geniuses after all. Ta ta~!" He chanted his numbers and was gone with a poof of perfume and confetti.

Rin sighed into the empty house and went to do the dishes, taking the tea tray and snack plate with him. Cleaning was peaceful and very unproblematic and therefore exactly what he needed right now. Yukio followed in silent agreement.

It took them a while to say anything.

"Well, as fucked up as it sounds, I'm kinda glad you didn't know much more than I did about all that. Makes me feel like I'm not the only one totally lost." Rin admitted quietly.

Yukio nodded, offering a feeble smile to his twin. "If you're going to Cram School, I'll at least still be able to keep an eye on you." He said.

"How, aren't you already an Exorcist?"

"Well, I was going to be Dad's TA in Demon Pharmaceuticals, but if I know Pheles, he'll probably make me take the position as the teacher to fill in for Dad and keep an eye on you. He likes playing games like that."

He heard a snort of laughter from Rin and looked up in confusion.

"You....hah! You're gonna teach a class about drugs?!" Rin giggled. Yukio gave him a flat look, but Rin only laughed harder. A pleasant sound to hear after the last two days.

Yukio sighed. "Yes, Rin. I'm going to be teaching a class about drugs. And you'll have to avoid some because they're supposed to hurt demons, so no drugs for you." He said with a huff.

Rin was leaning on the counter and his face was tomato red from laughter. The comment had the intended effect. Yukio smiled. If Rin could still laugh like that, than everything could still be okay, right?

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I love the brother fluff and Yukio could be so much better of a character if he loved Rin instead of going through his mental breakdown over trying to understand and deal with too much at once.

This Yukio makes me happy and I love writing him because I relate to him, in a way. Saying things just to make people feel better and laugh is kinda what I do bc all the people I know who aren't older adults are mainly depressed and anxious and need someone to make them laugh. Someone's gotta laugh and I know it probably won't be me, so I'll make someone else laugh and be happy even if it's only a temporary thing.

Yukio will be that person for Rin. He'll be there to say things just to make Rin laugh when he's down or he'll reassure Rin about things when Big Brother is worried. Yukio will go the extra mile for Rin and he'll make good on his promise to actually protect Rin and fight alongside him against the rest of the world that damns them and curses them for living. When Rin's friends abandon him, Yukio will still be there helping Rin through it and wishing he wasn't so busy so he could properly comfort Rin.