===============================================================================================
Shirou woke up warm and dry, in a comfortable bed in a room he didn’t immediately recognize. Saber was sitting in a chair beside the bed wearing a sweater he recognized as Rin’s. He guessed that that meant that he was in her guest bed.
Saber had been watching him sleep with a small, content smile on her face, and when she noticed he was awake the expression brightened into a beaming look of joy that made her already beautiful face into something literally stunning, catching him halfway through sitting up. She blushed when she saw him looking back, glancing down shyly then looking back up and asking, “How do you feel?”
“...Pretty good,” he said once he found his tongue. “Especially since I thought all of us were going to die.” Could this be another hallucination? No, it felt different, and anyway all four of them had told that thing to stuff it.
“If Berserker and I had been a little later, the cold might have done it,” Saber said seriously. “Rin woke up when we found you, so we brought all of you to her house. Shirou, don’t scare me like that again.”
He grinned, sheepishly. “I’ll try not to. I guess it’s Christmas morning... I should get started on making something for a treat.”
“You’re the last awake,” she told him, and caught him when he wobbled trying to stand up, “but I think that Sakura would be glad of the help.”
“Right,” he said. “I guess getting clean clothes can wait, since Rin won’t have anything that’ll fit me the way that fits you.”
Saber blushed nearly the same color as the sweater and helped him downstairs, although by the bottom of the steps he was steady enough that she was just holding him rather than holding him up.
Doing the cooking delayed the confrontation he was expecting - Shirou might not have been able to understand what had made three different girls decide he was ‘tasty’, but he wasn’t enough of an idiot to miss the point when their own literal fantasies were rubbing his nose in it - but before too much longer the food had been dished up and eaten and Rin was chivvying everyone into the room with the tree.
For a moment, he hung at the doorway, contemplating whether there was an isolated armchair he could claim to defuse things, and then Rin took one arm and Ilya the other and they dragged him to the center of the couch and settled down on either side. “Um,” he said, blushing - and blushed much harder as Sakura settled comfortably into his lap and Saber settled cross-legged on the floor next to Ilya’s legs. “What...”
“We talked while you were still asleep,” Sakura told him firmly, “and this is what we worked out.”
“It’s a contract to share limited resources,” Ilya said.
“I-” he stared helplessly at Berserker, pleading with his eyes for a rescue and some common sense.
“I’m going to see how you stand up to them before I throw my hat in,” the tall, sultry woman told him, smiling in amusement at his plight.
“But-”
“You’re not allowed to object,” Rin growled, poking him in the side.
He kept boggling for a moment, then sighed. It was still ridiculous and probably going to end in tears, but what would the harm be in pretending otherwise for a few days? And none of them were anything but gorgeous...
Almost unconsciously, Shirou smiled, and slid his arms around Rin and Ilya’s shoulders. “But,” he said, “I have a condition. If I find some place to install a hot tub, you’re all going to take advantage of it.”
The girls traded looks. “Deal,” Rin said, grinning, and Sakura laid her head back on his shoulder and started to say something before the doorbell rang and interrupted her.
“I’ll get it,” Berserker said, coming upright from her station next to the presents under the tree and going to the door.
She talked with someone just outside for several moments, while all of them looked on in curiosity, then came back in slowly, holding the arm to support a woman Shirou had never seen before, slender and frail like from a long illness, and obviously needing both her cane and the Servant’s support to stay upright. If he had to guess, he’d have said that she looked to be somewhere in her thirties, and she looked a lot like-
He felt both Rin and Sakura go stiff. “...mama?” the latter whispered, almost hidden under the former’s louder expression of surprise.
“I’m home,” Tohsaka Aoi told her daughters, smiling at them with eyes clear for the first time in a decade.
Both of the girls lunged to their feet and dashed over to throw their arms around her, all three crying happily at their reunion as Berserker stepped back to watch with approval.
“Welcome home,” Rin said, as Shirou checked off the next-to-last item on his list of things about the war that had concerned him.
And what were the odds of Lancer showing up from wherever he’d gotten to before tomorrow?
===============================================================================================
It wasn’t home, decided the man that legend called the Hound of Culainn, looking out over the sapphire sea and ivory beach under the blue-diamond tropical sky, but it was certainly pretty enough, and the climate was as nice as the company.
“Hey,” said the shapely woman sprawled across his chest, “I didn’t ask at the time... do you regret bowing out of the War?”
He didn’t even need to think about it. “Not a bit,” he said. “I’ve already got more than I’d’ve had the sense to ask for.”
She thought about that a moment, then gave him a sultry smile and rolled entirely on top of him. “Merry Christmas, then,” she said.
===============================================================================================
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Shirou woke up warm and dry, in a comfortable bed in a room he didn’t immediately recognize. Saber was sitting in a chair beside the bed wearing a sweater he recognized as Rin’s. He guessed that that meant that he was in her guest bed.
Saber had been watching him sleep with a small, content smile on her face, and when she noticed he was awake the expression brightened into a beaming look of joy that made her already beautiful face into something literally stunning, catching him halfway through sitting up. She blushed when she saw him looking back, glancing down shyly then looking back up and asking, “How do you feel?”
“...Pretty good,” he said once he found his tongue. “Especially since I thought all of us were going to die.” Could this be another hallucination? No, it felt different, and anyway all four of them had told that thing to stuff it.
“If Berserker and I had been a little later, the cold might have done it,” Saber said seriously. “Rin woke up when we found you, so we brought all of you to her house. Shirou, don’t scare me like that again.”
He grinned, sheepishly. “I’ll try not to. I guess it’s Christmas morning... I should get started on making something for a treat.”
“You’re the last awake,” she told him, and caught him when he wobbled trying to stand up, “but I think that Sakura would be glad of the help.”
“Right,” he said. “I guess getting clean clothes can wait, since Rin won’t have anything that’ll fit me the way that fits you.”
Saber blushed nearly the same color as the sweater and helped him downstairs, although by the bottom of the steps he was steady enough that she was just holding him rather than holding him up.
Doing the cooking delayed the confrontation he was expecting - Shirou might not have been able to understand what had made three different girls decide he was ‘tasty’, but he wasn’t enough of an idiot to miss the point when their own literal fantasies were rubbing his nose in it - but before too much longer the food had been dished up and eaten and Rin was chivvying everyone into the room with the tree.
For a moment, he hung at the doorway, contemplating whether there was an isolated armchair he could claim to defuse things, and then Rin took one arm and Ilya the other and they dragged him to the center of the couch and settled down on either side. “Um,” he said, blushing - and blushed much harder as Sakura settled comfortably into his lap and Saber settled cross-legged on the floor next to Ilya’s legs. “What...”
“We talked while you were still asleep,” Sakura told him firmly, “and this is what we worked out.”
“It’s a contract to share limited resources,” Ilya said.
“I-” he stared helplessly at Berserker, pleading with his eyes for a rescue and some common sense.
“I’m going to see how you stand up to them before I throw my hat in,” the tall, sultry woman told him, smiling in amusement at his plight.
“But-”
“You’re not allowed to object,” Rin growled, poking him in the side.
He kept boggling for a moment, then sighed. It was still ridiculous and probably going to end in tears, but what would the harm be in pretending otherwise for a few days? And none of them were anything but gorgeous...
Almost unconsciously, Shirou smiled, and slid his arms around Rin and Ilya’s shoulders. “But,” he said, “I have a condition. If I find some place to install a hot tub, you’re all going to take advantage of it.”
The girls traded looks. “Deal,” Rin said, grinning, and Sakura laid her head back on his shoulder and started to say something before the doorbell rang and interrupted her.
“I’ll get it,” Berserker said, coming upright from her station next to the presents under the tree and going to the door.
She talked with someone just outside for several moments, while all of them looked on in curiosity, then came back in slowly, holding the arm to support a woman Shirou had never seen before, slender and frail like from a long illness, and obviously needing both her cane and the Servant’s support to stay upright. If he had to guess, he’d have said that she looked to be somewhere in her thirties, and she looked a lot like-
He felt both Rin and Sakura go stiff. “...mama?” the latter whispered, almost hidden under the former’s louder expression of surprise.
“I’m home,” Tohsaka Aoi told her daughters, smiling at them with eyes clear for the first time in a decade.
Both of the girls lunged to their feet and dashed over to throw their arms around her, all three crying happily at their reunion as Berserker stepped back to watch with approval.
“Welcome home,” Rin said, as Shirou checked off the next-to-last item on his list of things about the war that had concerned him.
And what were the odds of Lancer showing up from wherever he’d gotten to before tomorrow?
===============================================================================================
It wasn’t home, decided the man that legend called the Hound of Culainn, looking out over the sapphire sea and ivory beach under the blue-diamond tropical sky, but it was certainly pretty enough, and the climate was as nice as the company.
“Hey,” said the shapely woman sprawled across his chest, “I didn’t ask at the time... do you regret bowing out of the War?”
He didn’t even need to think about it. “Not a bit,” he said. “I’ve already got more than I’d’ve had the sense to ask for.”
She thought about that a moment, then gave him a sultry smile and rolled entirely on top of him. “Merry Christmas, then,” she said.
===============================================================================================
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."