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[contrition]

It had been inching up the wall for a while. A demon, spreading itself thinly across concrete, crumbling the bricks as it went. No one paid attention to that particular alley, nestled away in the shadier part of town, housing fewer residents than it did schemes, and the idea that it might someday climb back up to the wealth enjoyed by the rest of the city. Buildings that had been waiting to be renovated for far too long, alongside flickering lights casting their inconstant gaze upon cracked asphalt.

A nice place to grow and consume as it reached out for its next victim, leaning it against the alley like he was no more than passerby. Only noticeable from a close distance were the boils which spread all across his body, rendering it inhuman, a constant shift over his limbs like snakes under skin.

By the time Yukio arrives, the difference in the movement is clear. The demon can't even begin to hold still, slithering over the walls as it decides to emerge, everything in its wake crumbling with the dark smoke of rot. But Yukio watches, a pair of bright blue eyes in the distance, raising his hand to point a gun with incendiary rounds in the direction of the demon.

Its body slumps towards him, what remains of its arms reaching, and a line parts where the man's mouth had been, breathing miasma in Yukio's direction.

He lets it come close. More than he should. More than he needs to, with his aim. By the time the gun fires, setting alight the fumes emitted in the demon's wake, everything billows out in Yukio's direction, sending him stumbling back until he collides with a dumpster, his back tensing with a shock of pain.

Close range helped with the damage of the shot, but it's not enough, one shoulder of the man blown off as he continues to stumble closer, angrier, faster than before, and Yukio can only just manage to get to his feet in time to run further out, attempting his best to aim over his shoulder.

Too close.



[ Notes for ultimate grossness: 1) the man looks sort of like this, only more human-like in shape. 2) the alley has a bunch of rot and stickiness over it of this sort. 3) and Yukio is using fire because it is strong against rot/decay in his world's demonology. ]

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[contrition]

"What good is drinking going to do me?" Yukio asks, genuinely perplexed, looking his age for one guileless moment before directing his gaze down at Dean's knife. It would work to let out the poison, even to help suppress some of the miasma, but it's an inelegant solution. If keeping a low profile was Yukio's greatest concern, this would be the time to let Dean have at it.

His gaze meets green eyes, bright underneath the dark shadow under Dean's brow, before shaking his head and nodding in the direction of his jacket.

"Good enough, but I have something better," he says on an exhale. "Inside the left side of my jacket. Hidden pocket near the lining. Silver needles rinsed with holy water."

[always_enduphere]

"Got something for everything, don't you?" Dean grunts, not mocking but appreciative as he digs through the jacket to find the needles. "Everything but a phone to call for backup," he adds, somewhat less appreciatively, and digs through his own coat to produce a flask.

"Take a gulp. It'll burn, but nothing like these needles are going to."

[contrition]

"I have to," Yukio mumbles, slightly distracted by the pain no matter how hard he tries to be otherwise, his shoulders shaking. "I'm not strong like nii-san is. If I don't know this world inside and out, I won't last a minute. If I need someone to bail me out every time, then it's really over."

His lips thin, tight at the edges in penance, before he parts them and lets Dean pour some of the liquor into his mouth. Unaccustomed to the taste of alcohol, Yukio bites down the immediate impulse to cough, swallowing the reflex down but unable to stop the way his eyes tear up.

"And people actually enjoy drinking that?" he asks once he's swallowed it down, a genuine, unbridled question.

He feels younger tonight than he's been in years.

[always_enduphere]

"You grow to like it," Dean grunts, nodding in approval when Yukio gets it down in one go. He repockets the flask and turns his attention to the needles.

"You know when else it's really over?" he asks as he pulls one out. "When you get yourself killed. From now on, if you've got a dangerous hunt, you call me. Ganking demons is what I'm here for, and you can get a hold of me, day or night."

Dean punctuates the missive with a precise jab into the largest blister, managing not to wince for the horror show that slides out of it.

[contrition]

"It wasn't even a dangerous hunt," Yukio says quietly, still blinking away the wetness in his eyes, trying his best to focus instead on the warmth in his stomach, but it's a dull sensation compared to the rest. "A rot demon is slow. I could have chipped gradually away from a distance, but... I got impatient. I wanted to get it finished and done with."

His eyes are wide and his breath paused as Dean pierces the first blister, his shoulders shuddering and a whimper falling behind the heavy bite of his lip as Yukio doubles forward, blood and pus leaking out over his fingers, smelling burnt and acrid from the effect of the holy water.

"I'm sure," he adds on a gasp, "that you have plenty of your own work to tend to."

[always_enduphere]

"No hunts important enough that I can't lend a hand," says Dean, thinking briefly of the blood eking from Castiel's eye. He squeezes Yukio's shoulder, helping to keep him upright through the worst racks of agony.

"Next time you call me," he says, voice firm. "How you doing? You ready for the next one?"

[contrition]

Yukio bites down on his retort. Bites down on his distrust of the sentiment. There will always be something in the world more important than him. And so long as Rin is around, that something will be directly by his side.

But what kind of brother would he be if he needed to put that into words? More importantly, how would he even be able to ask Dean to turn his eyes on Rin instead without coming off as weak? Without learning to trust someone he's hardly met.

Instead, Yukio shakes his head minutely, eyes still fixed on his hands. "Keep going. Go fast. I'd rather there be more pain for a shorter period of time than to let this drag on."