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🩹 ☕ 🛏️

I feel a little basic 😂

Basic can be a lot of fun!

Thank you for the prompt <3 I went with Bonrin (let me know if you wanted something else) and I hope you enjoy it.

🩹 tending to each other's wounds

☕ reluctant allies

🛏 only one bed

-- -- -- -- --

“Shut the hell up,” Bon grunted, shoving the door to the ratty looking hotel open. They were almost certainly going to catch some disease here. Hell, it was probably swarming with demons. At least Rin probably outranked them and would scare them off or intimidate them into submission, his being the son of Satan and all.

Shit, Bon couldn’t believe he’d known Rin for months and that hadn’t come up. He couldn’t believe he’d fought beside Rin, bled beside him, stood up against monsters and stupid practices and —

And fallen a bit for him. That he’d almost kissed him after dragging him out of that bug-infested swamp because he was so damn happy that Rin was okay and that the chuchi hadn’t managed to choke the life out of the idiot while Bon had been trying to get him free. It had freaked him out a bit, and now he was just…

Angry.

“Will not!” Rin snapped, entirely indignant and gratingly loud like always. “You’re still bleeding, Suguro!”

No duh. That’s what happened when you got slashed in the side by a naberius. Well, that’s what happened when you were a human anyway. He couldn’t help but notice Rin’s cuts had already healed just fine.

“Then at least be quieter about it,” Bon hissed back. He twisted away from the person manning the front desk, and with a grit of his teeth, he tugged his coat shut and buttoned it up so it covered the blood and the wound. Rin followed suit with his own coat.

Forcing his expression into something a little less murderous and pained, he turned back towards the front desk and made his way over.

“Hi,” he grit out, trying not to use any more air than necessary so his chest didn’t expand and press the wound against his coat, “we need two rooms.”

The man eyed them both skeptically. “Yeah? You each got four thousand yen?”

Why the hell was it so much for this dumpster fire of an inn? He didn’t have that much on him. He had a little over two thousand. He didn’t like their chances of finding a hostel out here, and even if they did, Rin wouldn’t be able to hide in one of those. Not with the tail. He’d—

Shit.

Bon eyed Rin and motioned for the man to give them a moment. “Hey,” he muttered, glaring at the ground and so angry that his choices were this or staying up all night at some manga shop, “how much do you have on you?”

“Two thousand and fifty yen.” Rin whispered back like he didn’t actually want to say the words.

Bon sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. Great. Turning back to the man, he tried not to glare and wasn’t sure he managed it. “One room. Overnight.”

The man nodded like that was what he had expected, and everything in Bon wanted to punch something. “Yeah. Alright. Let’s see some id.”

“Do you have vending machines?” Rin added as he passed his id and half the money.

The man eyed Rin, and suddenly squinted like he didn’t quite like what he saw. Bon’s heart jumped in immediate alarm.

“Nevermind,” he interrupted, taking his id back and snatching the key up. “I’m sure we’ll find it all just fine.” He grabbed Rin’s shoulder and jerked him back away from the desk and man. Rin scowled but followed.

“Thought I told you to be quiet.”

“And I said I wouldn’t. You’re bleeding through your coat. You’re gonna need something to replace all that. Yukio always made me drink coconut water. He said it was the best. You should eat too.”

Why did Rin need to know what to drink to replace blood?

(No. He wasn’t going down that rabbit hole. He didn’t need to be thinking about Rin. Rin didn’t trust him and probably never had, and he shouldn’t exactly trust Rin after everything…)

Bon found the door to their room without another word and unlocked it. Shoving it open, he glanced inside and found that it had one of those entrance hall things that meant you couldn’t really see the room until you’d passed the bathroom.

Bathroom. That was what he needed first. Thank you Shiemi for being paranoid and making everyone carry the ghoul kit.

Bon sucked in a painful breath and limped his way towards the bathroom. Rin watched him go with a frown, worrying his bottom lip between two damned fangs that Bon couldn’t believe he’d never noticed before. They just… they stuck out so much.

Man, the naberius cuts stung like a bitch. He wasn’t sure what sort of ghouls the demon had once been, but the final result of that stitched up monstrosity had been heinous in everyway, and he was not looking forward to the nightmares it was guaranteed to bring.

Rin followed him into the bathroom, still biting his lip. Bon decided to ignore him. He set his bag on the sink and carefully set to peeling his coat and shirt off. Every move hurt.

“Here,” Rin shuffled forward and grabbed the hem of his shirt unexpectedly. Bon’s breath hitched at the sudden warm brush of Rin’s fingers against his waist, “let me help.”

Jerk away, part of his brain ordered. The rest told him to stand still. He wanted to pretend that was a fear instinct, but it sure as hell wasn’t.

Not when Rin’s knuckles brushed along his back warmly, barely grazing him and leaving a trail of fire in its wake. For a wild moment, he didn’t notice the cuts. A wild and rebellious part of himself wanted to lean back into that gentle touch. It wanted to take comfort from Rin and just forget that he was upset. (With good reason!)

He stayed still instead, staring at himself in the mirror and the spot where Rin’s head was barely peeking over Bon’s shoulder. Just a mop of messy dark hair.

Bon swallowed and dropped his eyes to the sink. His hand was bloody. Was it his blood, Rin’s, or the naberius?

The shirt was lifted over his head, and he tossed it to the side to rinse out later.

“Shit,” Rin grunted, “why didn’t you say it had gotten you across the shoulders too?”

Honestly, everything had been hurting and he wasn’t entirely sure where all he’d been hit. Finishing the stupid verse and getting out had seemed more important than keeping stock of just where all he was bleeding.

“You didn’t ask,” he grumbled instead. Opening the bag, he peered inside and let out a relieved breath when he saw that Shiemi had added the aloe wipes. At least he wouldn’t die via ghoul temp taint.

“Did it hit you anywhere else?” Rin growled. Bon glanced up and almost jumped when he saw a flicker of flame in Rin’s hair.

“Not—” he swallowed, voice a little thick with something that was either fright or… or something he wasn’t going to think about. At all. “—Not that I remember.”

Rin snatched up the aloe wipe with an angry motion, and Bon tensed in anticipation of the rough touch and pain. Instead, Rin barely pressed the wipe against the angry marks on his shoulder. The medicinal sting was there, but there was no sting from the wound being messed with.

Tossing the soiled wipe, Rin grabbed a new one. “Turn around, I gotta get your side too.”

“I can do it.”

“Tough. Turn around.” Bon stubbornly held still. Rin growled low in his throat. “I’m not asking again.”

Ugh. Bon went ahead and turned before the warm twist in his gut could get any worse.

Rin didn’t meet his eyes. He just glared at the ugly cuts across Bon’s waist. Rin’s warm hands gently cleaned those as well, and Bon kept his eyes on the bloody cuts so he didn’t do something tremendously stupid like kissing this infuriatingly complicated boy.

“Who did you used to patch up?” He asked instead.

Rin made an unhappy noise. “Yuki. We’d patch each other up. People kinda sucked where I’m from.”

“Sucked where I was from as well. Maybe it’s just kids.”

Rin snorted. “Yeah.” He tossed the wipe. “I don’t know the spell Shiemi used.”

“That was enough. It’ll heal without infecting. Just gotta make sure I lie on my other side tonight. Don’t want to aggravate anything.”

Rin laughed and grabbed the bandages. “You aggravate something?”

What?! “Hey!”

Rin laughed again. Hard enough that his fangs showed. “Your face!” he cackled.

Bon snatched the bandages out of his hand and jerked them open. “Shut up!” He did not need Rin’s laugh making these complicated feelings worse. He stuck the bandage to his side with rougher movements than he needed to distract himself, and Rin promptly batted his hands away. “Hey, I can do it myself.”

“You’re gonna make it worse.”

Bon glared and tried to shove him away to absolutely no avail. Right. The son of Satan had super strength.

Damn it.

“Isn’t your twin the doctor?” He crossed his arms over his chest defensively and promptly regretted the action when it pulled at his shoulder painfully. He ignored the pain and glared at the dirty wall. There wasn’t even a shower in this place. Why had it cost so much?

“Already told ya I used to patch him up.” Rin gently smoothed the bandage on and turned him around to get at the shoulder. “Drop your arms.”

Bon did because he didn’t need Rin threatening to make him do it in that voice again.

“Alright,” Rin stated when he finished. “I’m gonna go find the vending machine and get us some food.”

“With fifty yen?”

Rin shrugged. “Sure.”

He was gone before Bon could tell him that wasn’t going to work.

Turning back to the sink, Bon turned the tap on and rinsed off his hands. He splashed some cold water on his face, and stared at himself in the mirror. He was pale and he looked miserable, which, yeah.

He rinsed his shirt as well as he could and left it hanging on the hook by the door to dry. At that point he left the bathroom and realized that there was a bigger problem than Rin trying to find dinner for fifty yen.

There was only one bed, and not a particularly big one at that. Worse, there wasn’t enough room around the bed for either of them to sleep. He wasn’t even sure how they had managed to wedge the thing in here with the small amount of space, and really, why had it cost so much?

“Found it!” Rin crowed with a bang of the door. He jogged in with arms full of far more food than he could possibly buy for fifty yen and stopped when Bon didn’t move. “What’s up?”

“Uh,” Bon swallowed, somewhere between wanting to laugh and entirely horrified. “We only got one bed.”

Rin peered around his arm. “Huh? But that doesn’t— what the hell?”

Bon shifted aside so he could get in the small space. He was going to have to share a bed with Rin. With the boy who he’d been passive-aggressively fighting with for the last week, and the boy he kinda-sort liked before everything. (He was not going to admit that he still kinda-sorta liked Rin.)

“Oh.” Rin slipped further into the room and set the food on the bed because there wasn’t room to put it anywhere else.

Right. Bon would just ignore that until he couldn’t.

Rin made him drink two of the coconut waters, and he made him eat an instant ramen and an oden. Rin ate two containers of popcorn and some ramen as well. Bon decided against asking how he had paid for it, because he was positive Rin hadn’t.

And finally, there was nothing to do but acknowledge the one bed thing.

“You gotta stay on your left side since you got all banged up, so you can have dibs,” Rin said casually as he tugged his own coat and shirt off. Bon stared wide eyed for a shocked moment before he realized he was staring. He blinked, promptly turned his head with a blush, and stared at the wall instead.

“Uh. I’ll take the right.”

Rin’s tail uncoiled from around his chest and Bon’s breath caught painfully in his throat. He shoved himself onto the bed instead of focusing on that and laid down as carefully as he could. Rin joined him and laid on his side as well since there wasn’t quite enough room for him to lay on his back.

It put their faces right next to each other. Like, breath sharing close to each other. Bon could count the colors in Rin’s eyes (had his pupils always been a little red?) close to each other.

Bon tried to shift back, but it was the edge of the bed.

“No,” he grunted, “this isn’t gonna work. Roll over or something.”

“Ye-yeah.” Rin swallowed, Bon tried and failed not to watch his throat bob, “that’s… yeah.” Rin shifted off the bed and flipped so he was on his other side with his back to Bon.

And his ass was entirely too close and how was this just as bad? How was Rin’s hair all soft looking and citrusy smelling when they’d spent the night fighting ghoul? Bon’s hair was a mess.

Bon forced his eyes closed and told himself he was not going to think about the fact that he was almost spooning this boy. That he could feel Rin’s warmth and hear him breathing. He blew out his own breath instead and tried very hard to think of nothing.

“It’s too quiet.” Rin mumbled.

“Go to sleep. It’s supposed to be quiet.” He’d normally play chants but their phones hadn’t made it through the fight.

Rin shifted on the bed, and his tail flicked across Bon’s leg. He couldn’t stop from flinching in surprise, and he could feel Rin wilt at that action.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not, I don’t care about the tail. It’s just kinda easy to forget? Surprised me.”

Rin laughed wryly. “Yeah, you don’t care alright.”

Bon’s eyes sprang open in indignation. “What the hell do ya mean by that?”

Rin sat up and turned the light off. “Kinda obvious, Suguro. I don’t care. Hate me or whatever. Everyone does. It doesn’t matter. I’m still gonna become the Paladin and I’m still gonna defeat Satan.”

It was said with so much finality, so much acceptance, that Bon didn’t know what to say for a long moment. He just laid there in the dark with Rin a few centimeters away, tense and upset, and holding his tail so it didn’t touch Bon.

“I don’t hate you.”

Rin started to shift but aborted the motion. “Since when?”

“I hated you that first day, and I haven’t since.” Not since Rin dove in front of a reaper. Not since Rin stood up definitely in front of everyone and heedless of the laughs, declared that he was going to do the same thing Bon wanted to do.

“Yeah you do.”

“You don’t get to tell me how I feel,” he snapped, irrationally angry and tired and sore, and so frustrated with everything. “I’m mad, but it ain’t hate.” It was hurt. It was an angry hurt that everything had ended up like this and that Rin had kept something so dangerous a secret and now he wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it. “Just go to sleep. Focus on your breathing. It’ll give you something to listen to.”

Bon closed his own eyes and tried not to think about how close and frustratingly far away Rin was.

“You don’t hate me?” Rin asked in a small, timid voice.

And just like that, the anger was gone and left just an empty kind of sorrow in its wake. “No, Okumura, I don’t hate ya.”

Rin didn’t say anything else for a long time. Long enough that Bon thought he’d gone asleep. He focused on his own breathing and started to let himself give into the lull of sleep.

Rin let go of his tail, and this time, when it flicked across Bon’s leg, he didn’t flinch away.

(When he woke up curled around Rin, he didn’t say anything. He just closed his eyes and held Rin until he woke up.)

— — — — — —

Available on ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35458600/chapters/88408756

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