Rin woke up very slowly, his senses coming back one at a time. His body felt heavy and he almost thought he was still underwater, except for the fact that he could breathe.

He heard beeping and a murmured conversation, the scratching of a pen on paper, rustling of clothes, doors opening and closing.

When he was finally able to force his eyes open, the room was actually not a bright white hospital room like he'd expected. He thought he'd be blinded by luminescent lights, and then realize he was in an uncomfortable cot surrounded by the smell of antiseptic and cotton blankets and sick people.

But as he looked around, he saw familiar pinks and purples. There were significantly less plushies than usual, but he recognized the otaku plushies left on the bed. He realized he couldn't really smell anything and only then noticed there was a mask over his mouth and nose, helping him breathe. There was an IV in the back of both of his hands and there was a heart monitor set up next to the IV pole beside the bed, one if those finger clamps on his left index finger.

Rin shifted and felt a very faint stab of pain in his chest. He took a deeper breath and his chest constricted for a moment before he was able to breathe again. He swallowed and felt just how dry his throat was. It felt like sandpaper.

The door opened and Mephisto and Shiemi came in. As soon as the Time Lord saw Rin's eyes open and looking at him blearily, he rushed to the bed before stopping just before he wrapped Rin up in what would probably be a painful hug. Instead, the Time Lord leaned over carefully and pulled the mask down to kiss Rin on the lips. He was warm and familiar and Rin hummed contentedly into the kiss.

"Rin! You scared me for a while, you were taking so long to recover!" Mephisto frowned when he pulled away. Rin tilted his head up to touch the Demon King's. "M' right here." He whispered hoarsely, trying for a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Ah, I made tea!" Shiemi remembered. Before she could rush out of the room, Mephisto snapped and the tea was there, pouring itself into a teacup. He hadn't moved away from Rin and stayed there until he had to give him the tea.

Shiemi helped the half-demon sit up in the bed very carefully, propping him up with pillows. Rin was still having a difficult time breathing and Mephisto snapped the mask away, replacing it with the tubes that went into your nostrils to let you breathe that way.

Rin took careful sips of the tea and shivered at the warmth spreading through his body from it. He was just now realizing that his body felt cold. Chilled. Why? Where was his fire, his heat? At his troubled expression, Mephisto hurried to explain before he could panic. "You overextended your powers and your body's capabilities, Rin. You nearly died. It's taking a while for your body to repair itself." He pulled himself into the bed and sat next to Rin, putting an arm across his shoulders so Rin could lean on him.

"But it's good that you're taking a while to heal. You need a recovery period, Rin. Being used as a living pincushion is going to slowly destroy you. Take some time off from doing things that tax you so much!" Shiemi lectured him and he nodded absently, barely hearing her. He was too focused on the warmth the tea was giving him.

Shiemi frowned and snapped twice in front of his face. His gaze snapped up to meet her stern one and he blinked a few times in slight disorientation after moving so fast. "Sorry....sorry...." He murmured, fixating on her.

"You need time to recover from things slower. Even if your body has already healed, you need time to process what happened so you learn from that experience instead of letting it happen over and over again just because you heal fast." She repeated, softer this time as she took his hand in hers. Rin nodded and squeezed her hand. He shifted to scoot over so the girl could sit on his other side. She smiled and sat next to him as he sipped his tea. They cuddled together on the bed and if the two felt Rin pulling small amounts of heat from them, they didn't say anything.

"M' too used to throwing myself into things. Usually just use myself as a shield since I don't have a physical one and Koneko and Bon are usually chanting the fatal verse, so they can't put up their own shields. And I know I pushed myself a little too far this time, but I still think it was worth it. Shura needed to come home." He sighed, sipping the tea idly.

"I will admit that if you hadn't pushed so far, Miss. Kirigakure wouldn't have made it back, but my point still stands." Shiemi admitted. She leaned over to place a kiss on Rin's forehead before getting up and leaving the room to tell Bon, Amaimon, and Shura that Rin was awake.

§~•~§~•~§

"You weren't breathing when he pulled you out." Bon murmured, wrapped around Rin and holding the smaller teen to him like he'd be pulled away if he didn't.

"Scared the shit outta me. You looked like you were already a ghost. Shura was panicking too. Amaimon just turned you onto your side and basically hit you really hard on the back and you were breathing again. You wouldn't wake up, though. I memorized the rest of the textbooks for four of my classes this year because I didn't wanna think about it." Rin was letting him talk to get the shock out of his system. He liked hearing the Aria's voice anyway. It was deep and smooth, and every word sounded perfect coming out of his mouth.

"Sorry I worried you so much. I wanted Shura to come home so bad. I liked having her look after me, even when she was mean and teasing me all the time." Rin apologized quietly. "Like a big sister. She's bratty and rude, but she tries to help me. It's nice being taken care of like you're more than just some random orphaned teenager who got dumped on some other teenager who was orphaned by the same asshole."

"I know." Bon kissed his face gently, little butterfly kisses along his still-cold skin. He felt Rin's cheeks warm under his lips and smiled.

"I was scared too, but I don't regret doing what I did. Shura deserves a good long life." Rin murmured. "Even if I died, at least one of us would've made it out. It wouldn't have been a failed mission." Rin recalled his thoughts from before he passed out underwater, closing his eyes and opening them again. Closing them reminded him of how dark it was deep down in Towada Lake and he just couldn't think about that right now. "I couldn't really feel anything the whole time. The most I felt was pain when Hachiro tried to crush me. My flames were all gone from that attack and it felt like my blood was freezing inside me. It was the first time I was actually afraid of dying in a long time." Rin turned his head to look into his boyfriend's eyes. Bon loved watching the slit pupils dilate every time they looked at him. Rin was so much more unique than anyone who'd ever caught his attention and he could and gladly would watch Rin all day of he didn't have responsibilities. He leaned down to place a soft kiss on the shorter teen's lips. He felt Rin's tail curl around his ankle and smiled into the kiss as the fur at the end tickled him. Rin pulled away, smiling too.

"This past year and even before all this, I never minded the possibility of dying if everyone else was okay in the end. In Kyoto, for just a moment, I wanted to tell you to run so I could just give everything I had and hopefully take the Impure King down with me when I did. Wasn't in a very good place back then. I'm glad things changed." The half-demon whispered, snuggling further into Bon's embrace. Rin had been so lost for most of the past year. He'd been lost and alone and terrified. He hated living like that. And Yukio just kept treating him worse and worse, then pushing their friends away because of Rin and then ignoring Rin's existence for weeks at a time, making Rin feel bad just for existing.

Rin had been sad. Not angry, not hurt, not betrayed, just sad. He'd had nothing. Shura tried to cheer him up, but she also needed to train him. At some point, the concerned looks turned to understanding. She let him take out his frustration on her in training all he wanted. She let him cry all he wanted and turned away to give him privacy. She'd occasionally buy him little treats too. She'd offered him a drink once, but he'd declined and she'd never asked again, thankfully.

"I'm happy you found people that loved you when I didn't realize I wanted to. I left all my friends behind and then you had no one because we all had our own things to do. We said we'd be there for you, knowing you were higher maintenance than a human, and we ended up leaving you in the dirt." Bon murmured, kissing him in apology. Rin liked actions better than words. If you didn't know that about him, you didn't deserve his attention.

"Lightning wanted to investigate the Order's History when I was his apprentice. I knew an organization like this would be shady as hell and I'd be involving myself in things I never wanted to see and could never tell anyone, but I waited. When he said we'd be investigating the Blue Night, including your birth and your parents, I bailed. I missed my social life a lot. I missed not being stressed 24/7. I missed not keeping huge secrets and keeping things from my friends. I missed being around you to laugh at your shitty jokes and watch the group slowly come alive when you started talking. The whole group is dead until you get there." Bon placed a fond kiss on Rin's neck before pulling back and placing another one on the crown of his head.

They fell asleep wrapped around each other.

§~•~§~•~§

"I was on autopilot when I retrieved you. I wasn't actually thinking. I couldn't think. All I knew was that if you died this planet would be in pieces." Amaimon had Rin sitting in his lap on the windowsill of their shared room. Rin was healed enough to breathe on his own and eat solid foods, though he was still on bedrest.

"That's sweet~" Rin blushed, nuzzling into the Earth King's hair. "I'm sorry I scared you." Amaimon would've caused an earthquake big enough to break Earth into pieces and obliterate all life on it just because Rin died. That was....It shouldn't have felt so good to hear those words, but it did. Rin had a boyfriend who would destroy a planet for him, a boyfriend who would reverse time and change the outcome instead of him dying, and a boyfriend that memorized four textbooks out of pure anxiety for Rin's well-being. And Shiemi lectured him on his recklessness and made sure he'd heard her before leaving.

He snuggled into the Earth King's embrace, a bright smile overtaking his face. "I love you." He murmured. Amaimon tensed for just a second before relaxing again. Rin didn't worry about it. He just let the breeze blow his hair away from his face as the sunlight slowly faded behind the city skyline.

"I love you too, Rin." Came the hushed words after a moment. Rin purred and planted a kiss on the love bite he'd left on Amaimon days before. He bit down on the fading bruise to make sure his claim would stay there. Amaimon jolted at the action. That spot had to be sensitive after being bruised for such a long time. Mephisto had his claim right behind Amaimon's right ear, usually hidden by his hair, and Bon kept his on the Demon King's left shoulder. Amaimon was the resident masochist among them and enjoyed the pain whenever one of them renewed the marks.

"Good. Because we're gonna be fighting Satan, the Illuminati, and the Order. And we're gonna watch them all collapse in on themselves after we lay waste to them all. Together." Rin said matter-of-factly as he looked at the setting sun and leaned his head on Amaimon's.

"We'll win. You'll win. And then we can move on with life until something else comes up." Amaimon mused. "Move on, as in find our places in society or move on as in make our family bigger?" Rin asked. "Would you want hatchlings with us?" Amaimon wondered. "I think having brats running around and causing chaos sounds like a life worth living." Rin smiled, closing his eyes and imagining little demons running around a big house, jumping on Mephisto as he got home from work, wrestling with Amaimon in his garden, falling asleep to bedtime stories Bon read to them. Talking about their day at the table as they ate a huge dinner Rin made them.

He wanted that. He wanted a huge family with all of his lovers. He wanted a future to look forward to.

"We will find ways to make it happen." Amaimon mused. "You'd go that far?" Rin asked. "Anything for my Camellia." The Demon King whispered, bring Rin's hand up to his lips to lay delicate kisses on the knuckles. Rin loved that he was the only one the Earth King displayed such softeness to.

Camellias-Admiration, Perfection, and Loveliness.