It's Been A While (Yukio X Reader X Rin) [✓]

6. Lanterns For Stars

RECAP:

Yukio shot a look at me, "Come on, let's go." We walked out of the tent slowly to find Mephisto and Amaimon had been waiting for us to come out to here news.

_________________________________

Um, Amaimon had changed.
    Like... A lot.
    His hair wasn't spiked anymore, he wore better (obviously still green and brown) clothes.
    He was... Good looking? Decent for once?

He spat out the lollipop in his hand and winked at me.
    I turned my head away in uncomfortableness. That no good son of a–
    "Why, greetings Yukio and strange young woman. I've come baring news." Mephisto bowed while everyone crowded around.
    "Amaimon had told me what happened with Y/N while you were playing that demon game, and you came across an odd one, am I faultless?"
    Did Amaimon mention the "almost kiss" too? Or maybe he lied and said that we really did kiss? Curse him.
    "Uh, yes. You are. Go on." I insisted.
    "Good. Anyhow, he said that you had got poisoned. That is a special poison that only one of the four most highest ranked demons have, one of which are Bael. The rest of them are: Akem Manah, Duke Eligos and the other demon I had just mentioned. We believe that they are trying to send a warning or a message." He explained.
    "Actually, we already figured that out earlier." Yukio said as he pointed to me.
    "Perfect. I guess you won't mind searching for Bael is these woods then, would you?"
    Everybody's eyes grew wide and started to throw a loud fit, going as far as Ryuji even throwing something at the weird man.
     "Oh, shush. You are all very capable of bringing him back here." He threw us all a small grey sphere.
    "When you find him, throw this at him and he will be contained in it. And when you do find him, set off those matches that Mr. Okumora gave to you earlier. Best of luck, I shall be waiting." He waved and disappeared into purple smoke.
    "Uh... Well, I guess we have no choice. He does live in the forests after all, anyway." Yukio sighed.
    "Alright, now go. Y/N, be extra careful."
    And Yukio sent us off. I heard people stay back and complain, but they were sent off anyway.
    Man, how am I going to fight with my wounds? If I do find him, that is.
_________________________________

After about ten minutes of being in the woods alone, Amaimon appeared in the tree above me.
    "Hello, Y/N. Come and enjoy the view." He called out.
    Don't answer, just keep walking.
    So I did.
     He eventually jumped down from the tree and walked next to me. I shoved him onto a tree unexpectedly with anger and yelled, "What do you want? Didn't I tell you last time to back the hell off?!"
    "Yes, but I didn't listen. Nor shall I now." He smirked, flipping positions, sending me in front of of him.
    "We should really start where we left off... I was enjoying it." He caressed my cheek lightly.
    "Seriously, stop messing around. It makes me uncomfortable when you do that." I scowled as I pushed him off me.
    He gave me a blank stare as I strolled further into the woods.
The woods... The tall trees. It reminded me of something.

FLASHBACK

"Are you feeling better, mommy?" I asked happily, squeezing her hand.
    My mother had just come out of the hospital two days ago after nine long months.
    They found out she had stage three cancer and had to wear a cloth around her head. She was also a alcoholic, which didn't make any things better.    Though I was only six at the time, most things made sense.
    We walked in the woods hand in hand and she smiled back at me, "Not a lot, but getting there."

The sun shines brightly through the green tree leaves as our feet crunched on the ground.
    "But... You will get better, right? Promise?" I questioned quietly.
    She stopped in her tracks and kneeled down before me.
    "I promise. We can go to the zoo, go eat your favorite foods, and travel around the world to different parks. It will happen the second after I get better."    She got back up and held my hand tightly.
    "Yay! I'm so excited for you to get better!" I squealed.
    I looked back up at her, but she wasn't smiling. She looked down at the ground.
    All the words I remembered those past great and fun days were all a blur now, except for the sentence: "I promise."

END OF FLASHBACK

I stopped in my tracks and thought about those good days.
    My face turned soft.
    "Leave me alone, Amaimon. And this time, I mean it."
    "But Y/N–"
    "Did you not here me?! Get the hell off my back!" I yelled, balling my fists and glaring into his eyes as he, too, gazed back at me with a blank stare.
    "Fine. I'll go and play with someone else." He mumbled in annoyance as he leapt into the trees and disappeared.
    God... What have I turned into?
    I'm turning into the person I don't like; yelling and snapping at people isn't my thing, so why? Why am I being like this...?

I walked on into the silent woods and thought about being an exorcist.
    Tch. What am I even doing here? I only came to see Rin and Yukio. I've been causing them so much trouble lately.
I just want it to be like the old days again when we were kids. It was so much more fun... Like it was yesterday.
I still feel my mother with me. She's watching me through the trees in disappointment. I gave a promise to her...

All of a sudden, interrupting my thoughts, I heard a loud boom.
Someone had lit their match.
I decided to run back to camp base to find out what was going on.
Once I got to the base, half of the class was already there. "Were you the one that set off the match?" Konekomaru asked me curiously.
    "N–No." I replied with my hands on my knees, breathing heavily because of how fast I ran.
    After a while of waiting, Rin came sprinting in. He held up the silver ball in pride.
    "Rin, you got him!" Yukio exclaimed.
    "Sure did." He smiled.
How the hell did he do that?
    Rin seemed to have no scratch or bruise from a possible fight with Bael.
He then put it away to give to Mephisto tomorrow.
    "Alright, everyone. We should get to bed. We leave the forest tomorrow afternoon."

Eventually, everyone was in their tents.
    I put on a long oversized shirt with short silk shorts and let my hair down. I tried to fall asleep, but I just couldn't. The ground was hard and I couldn't stop thinking about the past.

I decided to go and stargaze outside the tent for a bit and help me calm down.
    The stars...
    They reminded me of lanterns. They lit up the darkness around them and helped guide the way.

"The starts are beautiful, aren't they?"
    I turned around to see a familiar face.
    Yukio.