↳ happy RinShi day!💙🌸 I put my favorite solo Rin and Shiemi official art side by side for the occasion. (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡
also if anyone asks: I scanned both images myself! the Rin one from the iroiro artbook and the solo Shiemi here is from a Jump SQ girls calendar that came out in 2014 I recently obtained! (there is a version as well featuring Rin and Yukio with her)
"A soul mate is the one person whose love is powerful enough to motivate you to meet your soul, to do the emotional work of self-discovery, of awakening"
Happy Rinshi Day! 🩷💙
I ALMOST forgot to post this! I did a little redraw of this scene and it was honestly so fun ❤️ They are honestly the cutest, and Shiemi deserves the world.
Happy to finally post this! was contemplating on this for quite awhile since there was no RinShi Day yet, that it'd be worth choosing a date and having one annually each year!
since June 4th 2009 was when chapter 3 of Blue Exorcist was released, which is when Shiemi was introduced and Rin met her, it felt like the perfect date to choose for RinShi Day since it’s the beginning of not just them - but also the moment we got to connect with them too!
there’s no prompts required to follow, as always: fanart, fanfics, cosplays, edits, headcanons, etc! however you wanna participate is up to you!
the tags will be: #RinShiDay / #RinShiDay2022 so please tag your posts/content with it!
💙 { RinShi Day / June 4th } Warm Flames :: Rin & Shiemi ::🌸
↳ edits of moments with Shiemi finding warmth in Rin’s flames/ not being afraid of them <3 these moments all are so sweet to me and fit perfect for RinShi Day as it shows something special about their bond (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡
Disclaimer: none, just fluff with one of my fave canon ship; collab brought by @rinshi-feels
Pair: Rin Okumura x Shiemi Moriyama
Word count: 2.2k
Having a normal 9-5 job wasn’t really Rin’s type, but at least he didn’t need to fight evil every day anymore. He had saved the world back then, after all. What was left now was to enjoy his life as it was. Simple, safe and… empty. There wasn’t much left to keep the kids from back then together. Their skills weren’t required anymore, so they could go on with their lives, they could pursue whatever dream they had wished upon a star. Only Rin didn’t have one.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Rin’s roommate asked, entering the college dorm.
“Not very well. I have an exam tomorrow and I didn’t study shit,” he answered, laughing and clicking something on the working computer.
“Didn’t you say you promised your brother you will get that degree?”
“Yeah, and I will. I’ll manage somehow. Let me be, man…”
A few hours later, when he was just shutting down the computer, Rin felt a tickle down his spine. A familiar presence was close by, he was sure of it, yet he couldn’t figure out who it was, or rather if he mistook it.
“Ah, btw, I heard someone on the hallways today talking about you,” the roomie spoke from the other room.
“What? Who?”
“I don’t know. I just heard <<have you seen a dark-haired boy with rather pointy ears around? He’s smiling all the time and has canines a bit bigger.>> I noticed you look a bit different but I can’t believe someone actually used those to differentiate you.”
In this part of the world, no one knew Rin was a demon, one of Satan’s sons. He managed to hide his tail and ears better, thus staying undercover. Now someone who knew about those features of him was looking for him. It smelled rotten. However, he didn’t pay much mind to it, and shut himself in his room to finally study.
Both boys heard the shy knock at the front door of their little apartment, but none made any move to check who it was. Rin was too absorbed by the exam notes and his colleague was too caught up in the game he was playing. The louder knock should’ve been expected, yet it startled them.
“Could you open the door, Okumura?”
“You go, I’m busy here.”
“I can’t pause the game!”
“I don’t care…”
“Fine!” The boy shouted and threw his game controller on the bed. “What if there's someone handing out sweets or Christmas gifts on campus? I won’t share anything with you,” he added.
Rin ignored the comment and tried to focus back on the notebook, sitting criss crossed on the bed, completely and painfully bent over the papers.
“Uhm… Okumura? Someone is looking for you,” the boy called.
Over time – working and attending classes at the same time – Rin developed distributive attention, but not it was all gone. At first, he thought his roommate was playing tricks on him to get him out of the room, but something from the boy’s voice indicated otherwise. Stepping down from the bed and hissing at his numb legs, Rin skipped down the short hallway until he reached the front door.
Right there, in the doorframe, with cheeks red from blizzard and eyelashes full of snowflakes, a girl smiled the moment she laid her blue eyes on him. Rin stammered for a second but then, when she opened her mouth to probably say “hi”, he rushed towards and hugged her to his chest.
“Waaaait,” she laughed, hugging him back, “I’m full of snow, Rin.”
But for him it didn’t matter. Shiemi was alive. Alive and back, and apparently looking for him. Rin’s eyes filled with tears as he held her tight to his chest.
“You could at least allow her to enter,” the other boy suggested, taking a few steps back.
“Right, right!” Rin agreed and let go of Shiemi. “Please, come inside. What–... how, why?” He started asking, as he helped her take the coat off and gave her slippers.
“I’ll… be in my room, if you ne–... nevermind,” the roomie said as he left, but no one had ears for him anyway.
“Well,” Shiemi started, “first, I’m so glad I found you! I’ve worried so much! I’m sorry I disappeared like that. A lot of things happened back then and… after it ended, I just had to follow the Order. Later on things cleared and I was told to start a new life…”
It was clear on her face that she felt bad for obeying those orders. Rin watched her as she talked, holding back the urge to hug her again. A few minutes later, as they sat at the kitchen table, Shiemi told Rin the story of her life from the moment they last saw each other to present. Rin made tea, brought cookies out the cabinets and fidgeted with his fingers that ached to reach across the table and hold her hand.
He had missed Shiemi more than he realised. Amidst the last battle, she disappeared from his sight. He had searched for her at the end, but everyone was called to regroup and index the damages. After that, he hadn’t heard of her. Nor did the other ExWires.
“Everyone went on a different path, so it’s not just you…” Rin eventually said, when he felt Shiemi was blaming her too much. “Even I did. Not only have I left the country, but it’s been years since I’ve used my blade. I’m not complaining, though, the world is a better place now but… I’ve been…”
“Lonely, right?” The girl asked, reaching her hand over to catch his. “Me too, Rin. I missed you. That’s why I tried everything possible to find you. I knew that you probably thought I was dead, and that’s why you haven’t looked for me.”
He squeezed the soft hand – so little in his palm now that he was taller – and pouted. If he had talked at that moment, his voice would’ve been jittery and the words unintelligible, so he chose to just nod his head.
“I am here now, okay? And I don’t intend to leave,” Shiemi promised. “That, of course, if I’m not a bother… I should’ve assumed you had a roommate.”
There it was: the adorable blush Rin hasn’t seen in too long. His heart thumped against his chest and he couldn’t contain his feelings anymore, but he had to. He had to, right? Shiemi was just a friend. She had stated that clearly back then.
“Well, we could host you for a few days if you don’t have a place to stay. For how long are you staying? I suppose you came in town because you learned I was here, no?”
“Yes. I had to dig up some info and to talk to a lot of people, but I found you. I checked in at a hotel not far from here. I have most of my stuff there, but I intend to get a job and rent a place of my own.”
She was going to be there for a long time? Forever? Rin’s heart rate increased a tad more and he had to look away not to lose himself in her glistening eyes. She seemed to have come there specifically for him. To find him. To be with him? He couldn’t stop chewing the interior of his cheek in his attempt not to ask those questions out loud.
“Is everything ok, Rin?” She asked, rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand.
“What? Yes. Yes, of course, everything is ok. I was just… processing all of this,” he lied a little, only a little, though, he still needed to make sure she was real and not some dream of his.
“I’m glad to hear that. Is it okay if I stay here a bit? It’s aggressively snowing and I didn’t dress properly.”
“Of course! You’re always welcome in my home, Shiemi! I’ll make another tea and I’ll bring you a blanket, or a hoodie, whatever you want.”
Having her there, next to him, in flesh and bones, with warm breath and her usual smile coating her lips, Rin regained his younger self’s energy. He sped to his room and back, bringing a hoodie for the girl, prepared the tea and some food at the same time, all while telling Shiemi his story up until now.
“It seems you were quite busy too,” Shiemi figured.
She had missed him too. Nothing compared to Rin’s smile, to his voice, to the way he looked at her as if she was the centre of the Universe. Maybe she had rushed to reject his feelings. Or maybe it had been better like that. If she were to be true to herself, she did ponder whether to search for him or try to forget him. She thought that maybe he made a life for himself, maybe he found someone to accept all the love he was able to offer. And maybe that person wasn’t meant to be her. Nevertheless, all those thoughts were garbage now. The happiness she saw appearing on Rin’s face when they met earlier proved to Shiemi that his feelings were real and strong.
“I can’t believe I kept you in the kitchen all this time,” Rin said all of a sudden, as he gathered the dishes. “I should’ve let you cuddle up in the blanket in my room.”
“Do you want to do that, though? I find my room pretty nice,” Rin stated proudly.
“It’s ok. I’m not cold anymore,” Shiemi said. “I’ve never been cold when you were around anyway,” she wanted to add but refrained from doing so.
What if Rin’s feelings faded or changed? She had no right to barge in his life after so much time, after finally figuring out her own feelings. Sometimes too late is too late. Rin was just being hospitalier and kind, as usual.
“Sure.”
Under no circumstance, under no star alignment and not even in his best dreams, Rin expected Shiemi to cuddle into him. The winter evening lasted for the briefest second, therefore the darkness of the night fell before they could notice it. No light was on in the room, the only beam aiding them to see each other was coming from the street lamp close by.
Shiemi’s head rested almost weightless on Rin’s shoulder. Only she was snuggled up in a thin fluffy blanket, but it was Rin’s warmth that she wished for. It was all the same to when they got stranded underground back then. Rin remembered those moments all too well. How he wished he never confessed then. Shiemi probably wouldn’t have rejected him and their relationship wouldn’t have spiralled into such an awkward thing. He was overthinking now, more than he did back then. No, back then he was too honest and spoke his mind without thinking how it would affect her. This time, he ought to shut up. But when Shiemi’s hand found its way towards him and fingers got tangled, Rin’s breath hitched in his throat.
“It snows so softly now,” Shiemi whispered, looking out the window.
“Mhm…” the boy agreed, staring at a fixed point.
“Rin, there’s something I want to tell you, but I’m not sure I should.”
“I want to tell you something too, Shiemi.”
He could feel the tension in Shiemi’s voice. He could feel the slight shiver that went up her spine when he grabbed her hand with both his. Even being half-demon never made Rin feel as hot as he did in those moments. Maybe Shiemi changed her mind. He was afraid to say it out loud, even if he hadn’t stopped feeling it throughout all those years. What if he ruined everything?
At the same time, friends didn’t hold hands like that. Friends didn’t breathe so close to each other’s necks, didn’t bite their bottom lips whenever they glanced at each other. “Friends” was not what they were supposed to be.
The girl took a deep breath at that. The tension was palpable. She could hear her heart in her ears, or was it Rin’s the one that beat so fast and powerful?
“What is it?”
“You first,” he pleaded, leaning his cheek on the top of her head, finally looking at the delicate snowflakes dancing by the window.
“It’s something I should’ve said long ago, Rin. However, now that I’m here and you’re here, like this,” she started, and raised their reconnected hands into the air a bit, “it seems just as much of a right time to say it.”
“You can tell me anything,” he managed to let out before his breath hitched again.
“I love you, Rin. I’ve always had. I just feared that I wasn’t at your level and I would’ve held you down.”
Rin’s jaws clenched and he closed his eyes. For what felt like an eternity of waiting, Rin relived every moment he had shared with Shiemi. He opened his eyes when he reached the image of her in his house door frame. Carefully, he shifted on the bed, pushed Shiemi’s body off of him, birthing unintentional anxiety in her, to only calm it down with his fingers catching her chin and his lips pressing on hers.
“I love you too. I’ve always had,” he whispered atop her lips before he kissed her again, this time more daring.
