Summoning Blues

Notes: My brain is absolutely fried bc as it turns out they didn't lie about wedding planning being a nightmare lmao. So I figured something short and sweet a la Scent Thing and the Quarantine au was a good way to get back into the writing flow without exhausting myself :') Hope you guys enjoy this one bc I figured we were missing some good ol' fuck or die tentacle monster content in this fandom XD

Also note, I took the name and psychic abilities of the mind flayer, but it is not in fact the one from dnd so that's where the similarities end lmao

Song of the chapter: Lion by Hearts & Colors

Rin snuffled in his sleep, nose pressed to the pillows and eyes opened, though he wasn't awake to register anything.

His ears twitched. The room that had been otherwise silent beside his, Kuro's, and Yukio's slow breathing filled with another.

Whispers sent Rin frowning as the slight addition to the room that had become his territory began to edge him closer to awakening. He turned, hair falling across his face and searching.

A flash of blue fire sparked in the room above Rin and jerked him from sleep with a gasp.

"Rin?" Kuro's head popped up from the ball he curled into beside Rin with the sleepy mutter of his name.

Yukio pulled himself up next, always a light sleeper, and his dazed expression from being woken so abruptly snapped Rin out the stare he hadn't been able to break himself from.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Rin said in a mumble, trying to ignore the strange dream he'd been having.

"Sorry, I thought I saw something," he added to Yukio's growing frown.

Later, once Yukio and Kuro had returned to sleep again, Rin found his gaze on the spot in the room he'd woken to. His hand settled to his chest, fingers rubbing there to suppress a phantom ache he couldn't place the source of.

Had that been his blue flame?

His day carried on like usual, nothing more of the prickling at the fringes of his senses or the blue sparks he'd summoned in response to them appearing.

The professor droned on while Rin half-listened, trying not to think about the strange whispering he barely remembered and wasn't sure he'd made up or actually heard. Were the words something his brain automatically assumed? He never remembered his dreams usually...

"And now we'll pull out our materials to practice the chapter twelve summoning technique."

Rin shook the thoughts from his head and hid a sigh as he prepared for another hour of nothing. By the point in the year they'd reached, everyone had been able to summon at least a coal tar or other equivalent level of demon. His attempts had led to a solid zero.

They needed to know, even if they never went on to be tamers, according to the professor. Something about understanding the process so they could do it in emergency and learn to command demons.

Maybe, he had reasoned with Kuro when they'd talked about it, it was because he himself was a demon and had to go through a different process. Kuro hadn't had anything useful to add, not knowing how to explain the process in a way Rin could understand.

Largely, the class became a waste of time for Rin. Most of it was spent trying to reason to himself why he had to bother remembering the lectures when he couldn't seem to use any of them anyway.

One terrifying look from Yukio after he'd learned about Rin's habits in the class had kept him from ignoring everything to sleep, but the urge was always there. It seemed worse, even, nowadays.