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Today was not Shiro's day.

To start off with, he was injured. It was nothing serious, thankfully, but the pain was an annoyance and he had to be careful to keep his cuts from opening and bleeding all over him. This was a serious concern, because some asshole had decided to take all of his things, which included his medical supplies. If he dirtied these bandages before he found more, he wouldn't be able to change them.

Of course, none of that compared to the headache of getting knocked out and dropped in the middle of God-knows-where. It certainly wasn't anywhere on that mountain, there wasn't enough snow or steep slopes. This brought him to problem number three: someone had stolen the sword. Other things were gone too, but those were incidental compared to the sword. He had fought his way through a temple of monks for that thing, and he wasn't about to let someone just take it and run away. He was pissed, and he was going to find that sword.

In his one stroke of luck for the day, Shiro had ended up at some kind of train stop. Sure, it was in the middle of a forest, with only one other building around, but train tracks meant that a town couldn't be far away. All he had to do was follow the train tracks, and eventually he would find someone.

So he hopped down from the station and started walking along the tracks, heading East. It took well over an hour of walking to get anywhere, but eventually he did reach a small, abandoned-looking town. The key word there being 'abandoned-looking.' Frowning, Shiro kept walking, trying to find at least one person in this run-down hellhole. He was only at the outskirts of the town, after all. Maybe more people were further in.

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Well. That was a step in the right direction.

Rin knew the truth would come out sooner or later. He was that bad at lying and with both him and Yukio there, and the information they'd already given out to others (Rin more than Yukio) something would slip. Something would hit Shiro at just the right time to clue him in to all the things Rin was leaving out, and all the things he wasn't being truthful about.

But really, if he had to find a way to break this to him slowly, in a way that wouldn't set the paranoid exorcist in him off bad enough that he'd try to kill Rin. There was enough in that awful place to do that without adding Shiro to the mix.

"'kay..."

And after that, Rin went quiet. The truck didn't turn over the first few times, but the fourth or fifth time it finally sputtered to life. The tank was getting low, but he might have been able to make it back to the one working gas station on foot later and get something out of it later.

Luckily they weren't terribly far from the clinic, either, and a short drive later he was pulling up next to a slightly nicer looking house than some of the other ramshackle, falling down ones. There were no visible signs, save for a rusted metal red + tacked to the side next to the door.

Rin moved the truck down the dirt road, eventually pulling in to the grass next to the house before shutting the engine off and getting out to come around and grab Shiro. And the sword, of course.

"This town looks like shit."

That was pretty much what was on Shiro's mind as they drove through the town. It was small, and it looked like it had seen better days. Just what had happened here?

When they got to the clinic, Shiro tried to walk on his own, though he was obviously in pain. He had to look like he could handle himself, if only to keep his pride from hurting any more than it already was.

"You sure your brother's here?"

"Southtown is a little better... not by much, though."

Rin could have gotten in to details, but he had a feeling Shiro didn't want to hear about how there had only been a handful before his group showed up, and how so many kept arriving after, month by month, stretching resources thin, giving more fuel to the terrible fire the technicians stoked in the shadows...

If he wanted details, he could easily ask.

Rin kept close after Shiro got out, heading up to the door and pushing it open without knocking. The inside certainly looked like a clinic, but not a very well stocked one. It was what could be done in such a place, with nothing but a house to hold it due to the fact that the hospital was in even worse condition.

"Should be. Have a seat, I'll go look for him."

Rin would find Yukio in one of the back rooms, absorbed in taking inventory of the clinic's depressingly small store of supplies. Not quite so small as it had been the day before thanks to an early morning scavenging of the hospital, but still far smaller than Yukio would have preferred. Heaven forbid more than two or three serious injuries every come in at once. He'd end up sewing wounds shut with dental floss.

Caught deep in thought and just a little bit of his ever-present worry, he didn't realize he wasn't alone in the clinic until Rin actually stepped through the door of the back room.

"Niisan? Is something wrong?"

Because why else would Rin be at the clinic in the middle of the day?

Shiro stayed in the front room, waiting for Rin to go get Yukio. He didn't sit down, though. He was too antsy to sit, and he knew he would have to move to redo the stitches and bandages anyway. So instead he stood there, half-leaning against a wall as he surveyed the room.

It was kind of shitty, he had to admit. Not as bad as some of the other buildings he had seen out the truck window, but it was still crummy. This place needed some tender loving care, and some sterilization. The last thing Shiro needed was to get infected wounds.

He could hear the two talking in the other room, but he didn't chime in, instead choosing to listen in to their conversation.

"... yeah."

The look on his face indicated, at least, that he wasn't injured. But it wasn't the look of "one of my friends is in trouble" either. It was something else. Something strained, tense, like he had been dealing with something alone and was about to burst from the pressure of it.

"... don't freak, okay? Whatever you do, whatever you think you're gonna say to him, don't say it. Just trust me on this, okay?"

'Don't freak?' That didn't bode well. Part of the young exorcist wanted to argue, but Rin's stance and expression stopped him for once. He could handle anger or panic, but that kind of strain on his brother's face...

He stood slowly and moved for the door, fixing Rin with a short, searching look before stepping into the front room.

The new boy entering the room looked far too young to be a doctor of any sort, and his cracked spectacles and shaggy hair (abnormally shaggy for him, anyway) did little to age him, nor did his wide-eyed look of shock when he realized just who it was that Rin had brought with him. The recognition was nearly instant, the missing years on Shiro's face unimportant.

A quiet little noise forced its way out of Yukio's throat before he could clamp down on his vocal cords, but after that holding his tongue was a fairly simply task.

After all, what can you possibly say ten seconds after setting eyes on the man that would become your father?

Edited 2014-02-11 03:54 (UTC)

That did not help at all. Shiro was not stupid, he could tell that these two kids knew something he didn't. The fact that they were hiding it from him made him suspicious.

"Alright," he said finally, "I'd like to know what's got you two so freaked out. Even if there's time bullshit going on, you two shouldn't be this stunned to see me."

Yukio looked even more familiar than Rin did, though, and it really bothered him that he couldn't figure out why.

Rin hung back a bit, near the door, watching Yukio from behind. He didn't have to see his brother's face to know what it looked like. His reaction had pretty much been the same, minus the utter, pained silence that followed it that noise.

Shiro speaking, though, did urge him out of the doorway. He moved closer, but kept enough distance to let Yukio work unhindered.

He did share a look with him, though.

How much should they tell? How much was going to get them killed, and how much was going to actually save them?

Yukio didn't move for his supplies right away, instead forcing himself to take a deep breath and schooling his expression into something more neutral. Mostly. He had to try and approach the situation objectively, but like Rin he worried how much might be too much. Violence was not a likely possibility in his mind (and wouldn't have been even if he didn't have a gun stowed safely nearby), but rejection? Far more likely, and somehow far more frightening.

"It's a complicated situation..."

Yukio frowned, eyebrows furrowing as his eyes finally picked out a slightly darker patch on Shiro's already dark coat.

"Are you bleeding?"

Oh right, he was still bleeding. Awkwardness and serious grilling about what the fuck was going on could wait until after Shiro wasn't at risk of bleeding out.

"Yeah," Shiro admitted, and he started to remove his scarf and coat while he talked, "I got hurt a couple days ago, and I think I ripped it open again."

It took surprisingly less time for him to get that coat off than it should have, given his injury. The bleeding was actually slowing down by then, but his white shirt was still stained red, and would need some serious washing. The bandages underneath were ruined too, and would need replacing.

"He faceplanted up closer to Northtown while tryin' to run." Mostly the truth. He was leaving out the "tried to steal my sword" and "was attempting to run away from me" parts of the story.

"Not bleedin' as bad as he was, though..."

Yukio grimaced at the sight, caught between concern and slight annoyance. Concern for obvious reasons, but a Doctor like Shiro? He really should've known better than to stress an abdominal injury so soon after getting it patched.

"Take off your shirt and lie down. Carefully, please."

He gestured to the nearest cot before heading for the clinic's small kitchen. The sound of splashing water could be heard almost immediately. Probably Yukio washing storeroom dust off of his hands in the water he boiled several times a day for just that use.

"Niisan, go into the back room and bring me the brown backpack."

Why thank you, Rin, for leaving that part out. It will make it all the easier to steal that sword back later.

Shiro did as he was told, dropping his clothes unceremoniously into a chair. Anyone else might have been frightened, or at least grimacing from the pain, but Shiro took it like it was nothing. It was far from the worst injury he had even received on the job, he could deal with it.

But at least he was compliant. He didn't like the idea of a kid treating his injuries, but if he did a shitty job then Shiro could just fix it later. Might as well play nice now, to make them let their guard down.

"For the record, it was the jumping that did it, not the falling."

Yeah yeah keep trying old man. Rin isn't that dumb.

Nodding, Rin slipped quietly to the back, getting what Yukio asked of him and putting it over his shoulder so he could bring it up front.

"Whatever it was you shouldn't be doin' it when you're like that. You'd think you'd know that, bein' a doctor."

Yukio walked back into the room with a bowl of water (not the one he washed his hands in, in case anyone was worried) and set right to treating Shiro. Carefully removing the soiled bandages, gently cleaning and examining the wound and working to set things right without missing a beat.

"You don't get to lecture anyone where recklessness is concerned, Niisan."

He didn't even look up when he spoke, focused on his task and working with skilled, steady hands. Whoever taught him did their job very well.

That was actually very reassuring, when he saw that Yukio knew what he was doing. Shiro was expecting some untrained kid, and he really didn't want to get an infection when he was so far away from home. At least he probably won't have to fix up Yukio's work here.

The tear was a minor one, fortunately. It would only need re-bandaging, and for Shiro to take it easy to keep from bleeding all over again. But the marks there show just the kind of trouble Shiro had gotten into: That long yet shallow wound was definitely the mark of someone who had come close to being gutted by some kind of demon. There was also a lot of bruising, since he had fallen from quite a height afterwards.

Meanwhile, Shiro causally flipped Rin off. "I don't need any lectures from a brat."

Wow flipped off by his old man. That's a first. But Rin responds in kind with both hands from behind Yukio, sticking out his tongue at the same time.

"Shadup and get patched up already, geez. I may be a brat but I ain't the one sittin' there with blood all over me!"

"Both of you, stop."

He let the words fly without thinking, only tensing up a few seconds later when he realized he'd almost told his father to shut up. Not that it mattered in this very unique situation, but old habits die hard.

"... What kind of demon did this?"

It was a good thing that Yukio had stopped them, because Shiro would have definitely responded with something about offering to make Rin bloody. To share the love and all.

He settled for making one more face at Rin before answering Yukio's question. "Some kind of giant eagle-thing. Not completely sure, it came out of nowhere and was gone just as quickly. I already used the standard salves on it, so there's not going to be any poisoning problems."

Demon wounds could be potentially fatal to humans, even if they were minor ones. Shiro would never be so lax as to not treat a demon wound properly.

Rin made a soft "tch!" noise back at Shiro, shuffling off to go... stare at a wall somewhere else. It was weird, being able to rib at Shiro like that without any real consequences behind it. It just didn't feel right to Rin, and he knew he was only going to be in the way if he kept that up.

"Hn."

Yukio kept his eyes down as he finished up with Shiro's new bandages, unaware of the little pout he was wearing.

"You'll need to be more careful here. I've yet to see any demons of out world, but supplies are limited at the best of times. Medical and otherwise."

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