Chapter Text
Rin was paying attention in class, for once. It wasn’t for a lack of trying to zone out, it’s just that the teacher kept using him as an example, which was frickin’ annoying.
“So, families of demons will be stronger against and be able to control those they hold dominion over even if the individual demon hasn’t proven itself to be more powerful, simply by belonging to a higher ranked family. That is why Rin doesn’t have to fight harder or better than the rest of you with low level demons, he simply needs to let out his demonic side, and they can tell what his lineage is and will move aside for him.”
The rest of the class was snickering at him now, great. Just what he needed.
“I do fight them, though!”
“Well, yes Rin, that is true, though that is probably more to do with your stab first, ask questions later approach. It would be an interesting experiment to see if they would listen to you if you put your effort into ordering them instead of fighting them. Perhaps we should give you some more hands-on tamer training to see.”
Great, now he’d have more work on top of it.
“Anyway, this phenomenon among demons is useful to exorcists, especially for tamers, as your familiar will be stronger against lower demons, and in some cases can tell them to stand aside, or even order their help. This is why it is important to understand not only your familiar’s class, but their family lineage as well.”
Rin wondered if Yukio would have the same power if he put his all into showing their lineage. He’d definitely be a lot better at shouting orders than Rin. And would it count in his human lineage too? If he got married, or had kids, would they get special protections or powers? He supposed that was one silver lining. Hey, sorry you’re marrying the literal son of Satan, but hey at least the coal tars will leave you alone. They could probably even use the power better than Rin did. There was a certain grumbly punk he’d been holding a flame for who’d be excellent with his gruff, no nonsense, ‘I mean business’ voice. God, if Ryuji was his husband, if it worked like that, he could control the whole damned demon world with a glare, Rin was sure of it.
He had to cut his fantasies off while the cram school made their way to the grass quad after school. They often laid out on the grass, eating snacks and studying while the weather was nice. And every time he got too distracted, he’d always say something cripplingly embarrassing to Ryuji, so he had to stay focused. It was just hard when Konekomaru was trying to make him focus on his math homework.
“So did Light get back to you?” Shima was asking Bon
“No, not yet, but I think I’m whittling him down.”
“About what?” Rin asked.
“Bon’s trying to get them to let him on that mission going up to Kyoto next month.”
“Uhgg, don’t remind me, I’ve been ‘volunteered’ by Yukio to go help.”
“What? They’re letting you go!” Bon shouted, “What the hell! It’s way higher rank and super fucking dangerous! You tripped over your own damned feet last week in training and nearly stabbed yourself.”
“Hey, it’s not like I want to go! Everyone treats me like a child on those things, even though they have no problem treating Yuki like an adult, and I’m older than him, then they just make me do busy work and ignore me until something needs to get burned to a crisp.”
“It’s probably like Sensei was talking about in class.” Moriyama brought up. “You’ve got special dominion over a lot, so it’s easier for you to go after the big things.”
“Well, I don’t care. I’m getting on that mission.” Bon grumbled.
“Won’t it be dangerous for you, though?” Rin asked.
Bon bristled. “It’s right by Kyoto, I can’t not help with something that close to the temple, especially when they’re still rebuilding after the impure king.”
“Right.” Rin muttered. His brain reminded him helpfully of all the things he had been debating in class. If him and Bon were together, would he be safer? Could Rin ask him out before the mission, just to see? But of course Suguro would never say yes to that. There was no way he felt anything but annoyance toward Rin. But still, once he had thought about it, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head. If Ryuji was Satan’s son-in-law, he’d be infinitely more safe going on all of these ridiculous missions he was forcing himself onto. And there was no way he was ever going to listen to Rin on this, he knew. But it felt wrong not to try, not to do everything he could to protect his friend. If Ryuji talked Light into letting him on this mission that was way over his head, which he might cause Light was weird and unpredictable as all hell, if something happened to Ryuji and Rin knew he might have been able to prevent it, but didn’t cause he was too embarrassed of his stupid little crush, then he’d never forgive himself.
He waited until lunch the next day, cause Rin knew Suguro didn’t share a lot of his normal classes with the cram school group, so he’d be easier to catch alone. If he was doing this, there was no way he was doing it where Shima or Yukio or anyone else could overhear him.
“Suguro! Wait up!” Rin shouted, cutting the boy off on his way to the cafeteria. “I’ve got an extra bento, if you want. Come on.”
“Uh, sure, thanks Okumura.” Suguro looked a little stunned, but luckily everyone had eaten his cooking enough that the default answer was to just say yes when he offered food.
“Come on, let’s go sit by ourselves. It’s too loud over here.” He dragged Suguro along around the other side of the building, knowing it would be quiet in the shade, and hopefully no one would look for them if they weren’t in their normal spots.
“Sure.” He sat with Rin against the concrete wall, and looked happy enough when Rin passed him over a spare bento of chicken karage. Usually he brought one for Yukio, but his brother would just have to suffer and eat something else this once.
Rin ate in silence for a few minutes, blushing a little at Suguro’s insistence that the food was delicious.
“So,” Rin started, “You still planning on going on that mission next month? The one to Kyoto?”
“Yeah. I think I almost got Light talked into it.”
“Cool. Yeah, that’s great.” Rin bounced his leg up and down, trying to relieve some of his stress. “So, I’ve been thinking about that class yesterday, about how Sensei said I had it easier cause I’m from such a high-levelled demon family, and wondering how all that works and stuff.”
“Right.” Suguro said, taking another bite of chicken and rice.
“And I was thinking, I’m not exactly sure if it works this way, but it’s worth trying it, in case it does work, cause, like that would be a huge advantage for you and stuff.”
“Uh-huh.” Suguro said, mostly focusing on his lunch.
“So I was thinking about that, and I thought maybe-maybe we should get married.”
Suguro’s eyes went huge, and he started coughing. Shit, was he choking?
“Suguro, you okay?” Rin said, hitting him on the back.
“What the fuck?”
“What?”
“What the hell are you talking about, Okumura? Where is this coming from?!” His face was red and he was still coughing a little.
“I mean, it would solve the problem, wouldn’t it?”
“What problem?!”
You running head-long into danger you’re not prepared for, cause you’re a big hot-headed idiot, Rin didn’t say, but he was thinking it. “The-with the mission. If you were more powerful.”
“What the fuck are we even talking about, Rin? Cause I’m pretty sure you just asked me to marry you. Now you’re just, what? Ignoring that to talk about the mission?”
Rin rolled his eyes. “Okay, keep up. You’re trying to go on this mission that is way above your pay grade, right? But I’m going on it cause I inherited all this high-level demon shit, right? Like Sensei said yesterday, stuff doesn’t mess with me cause I’m the son of Satan, and it passes through family lineages, even if I hate him and I’m going to kill him first chance I get, I still get his protection and his dominion over lesser demons, yeah?” Rin was gesturing wildly, trying to get his point across, but Suguro was still just staring at him, looking shocked. “So I was thinking, does that stuff transfer through human families? I mean, it must right? Cause I’m half human, it’s not like I’ve got to be full demon for it to work. So if you and I get married, you’d be the son-in-law of Satan, which, I know, horrible thought, still killing him, try to see past that whole part, but you should get all the perks, right? I mean, not the flames and stuff obviously, it’s not like you’d be part-demon, but you’d be in a powerful demon family, so you’d get like dominion over them or whatever the hell Sensei said. Right? That sounds right, doesn’t it?”
Suguro stared at him, his mouth open in shock.
“Bon, what do you think, huh? Will ya marry me?”
Suguro stared at him for a long moment, his mouth hanging open, his cheeks getting more and more red. “We’re not having this conversation.” Suguro stood up suddenly, leaving his bento on the ground. “This conversation isn’t happening.” He said, walking away from Rin.
“Hey, Bon, come back! What’s wrong with you?” Rin shouted after him.