Chapter Text
Things were going great. Rin didn’t sleep through his alarms and was able to wake up with Yukio, sat down and ate breakfast without rushing, made it to class a bit earlier than usual, he somewhat understood the material Yukio handed out, passed a test with an average C, and he never fell asleep in class. So, yeah, Rin was stoked! Rin can rub in his brother’s face that he’s not as dumb as people make him out to be!
He took a shot at studying with Yukio after dinner and hopped in the shower the moment they were done. He decided that since he did so well that day and tomorrow was the weekend, he could binge read one of the manga’s he started late into the night. He pointed his desk light at his bed and settled down with a stack and a half of books. When Yukio laid down to sleep, he pointed at his older brother and made him promise to be quiet. And of course , like the good brother he is, he agreed.
Yukio’s light snoring became a white noise to Rin as he read the night away. Kuro eventually got tired of his shuffling when he went to grab another book, so he leaped up to the small cat bed perched on one of his empty shelves. In the middle of him reading another book, Rin yawned and glanced at the digital clock. It was some time after midnight and his throat was feeling dry, so he got up to grab a cup of water from his favorite place to be in any building. . . also known as the kitchen.
On his way to the bottom floor, he realized how tired he was. His arms felt too heavy for their own good and his legs started to go numb, even his tail barely swayed as he walked. He whipped out a cup from one of the cupboards once he was in the kitchen and held it under the faucet. He filled the semi-chilled liquid to about half the cup and knocked it back. . . He immediately regretted it.
The water burned ! He managed to spit most of it out into the sink, but the small amount he swallowed lit up his throat like a firecracker. He bent over the sink as he clutched at his throat, coughing up his agony. He didn’t know what to do! He couldn’t call out for help and Ukobach clearly wasn’t in the building. So in his blind fit of pain, he did the one thing he knew that had to wake someone up. He hurled the cup in his hand straight at the wall on the other side of the room; the cup shattered into tiny pieces upon impact.
Unshed tears formed in the corners of his eyes and he could taste the iron tint of blood on his burnt tongue. He couldn’t stop hacking and it was only making the fiery sting in his throat worse. Where the hell was Yukio?! God, it hurts! He wanted to claw at his throat but the pinch of claws made him vaguely aware that if he did, it would only turn out worse.
His violent coughing subsided and he tried to call out for someone, but it came out raspy and he cringed at how much it stung. Frantic footsteps sounded behind him and he turned to look over his shoulder, still clutching at his wounded throat.
“Rin! What the hell happened? Are you ok?” Yukio’s voice reached his ears and he never felt more relief, although the excruciating pain exploding from his throat put a damper on his mood.
Rin tried to speak but his throat felt like sandpaper and his voice came out so hoarse that it was barely recognizable.
“Rin?”
The halfling motioned to his throat, lifting his head to emphasize. Yukio raced over to his side, going around the island to avoid the glass shards scattered across the floor and countertops, flicking on the light as he passed. When Yukio stood beside him, his eyes flickered over to the sink. A splatter of blood lined the inside of the sink and Rin saw him visibly cringed in worry.
“Your throat hurts?”
Rin nodded.
Yukio sighed and he cupped Rin’s jaw. “Alright, open up.”
Rin slowly opened his mouth, his hand still wrapped around his throat in a protective manner as his other clutched at the edge of the counter. Through his blurry vision, Rin saw Yukio’s eyes go wide as he stared down into his maw.
“God, what in the world did you do to result in this?!” Yukio exclaimed as he glanced around.
Rin pointed at the sink as a reply.
Yukio didn’t say anything as he stared at the dripping faucet. He reached past Rin and held his hand under the trickle of water. Rin watched as the small droplets of water landed on Yukio’s skin, but Yukio never flinched back. Rin stared in frustrated disbelief as his twin flipped his hand over to catch droplets and created a small puddle in his hand. He wafted it towards his nose and tasted the liquid, but Yukio never experienced what Rin had gone through.
Yukio glanced at Rin and back at the fluid in question before he flicked the dreadful water onto Rin. He recoiled as the water landed on his skin, searing hot dampness left speckles on his skin and Rin hissed in pain. Rin glared back at his brother as Yukio thought.
“Huh.”
What? Rin wanted to snarl at his dumb sibling.
Yukio grabbed a towel off of the island and started drying his hands. “It could be holy water.”
Rin stared with wide eyes. Holy water? Holy water?! Who in the FUCK put holy water in the plumbing?!
Rin wanted to scream and cry at the same time. But he can’t scream because his throat just experienced second degree burns! That leaves crying as the next best thing. His throat hurt, Yukio would understand if he just started balling, right? Ok, ‘hurt’ is an understatement, Rin wanted to die. Sure, the wounds would heal pretty fast, but that didn’t stop him from feeling pain.
. . . Yeah, Rin’s gonna cry.