Fate/Clusterfuck (Fate/Stay Night)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOlEdR0kKEg

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

[Tigers and Witches oh my]

—

It was with a methodical peace you got to work cleaning up the dining room, the hum of the fluorescent above the table the only sound besides that of clanking ceramic and running water as you let your thoughts wander in the first true moment of peace you had had for over twenty-four hours.

It had been… busy. To say the very least, what was once a cold, dreary winter was now filled with a fair bit of 'excitement', though the scale of it still felt obnoxiously unknown to you at present. There was more to this situation than you were being let on to, you had been only given fragments, and of the two, possibly three people that could tell you. None were viable. Sakura seemed scared to talk about it, and you wouldn't force it. Caster… or Medea was full of secrets and you didn't know her well enough to pry them out of her. You still didn't even know how she had been injured. The thought of asking her had crossed your mind more than once, but there was never a good moment to ask. And even now, she seemed… rather cross with you.

The last was Raiga.

And you tried to never ask Raiga anything, ever, for any reason. Lest you wind up accidentally in debt to the Yakuza. It wasn't even a childish fear on your part, he had tried that more than once. Taiga recalls rather vividly the time you had cried for several hours after accepting candy from Raiga, he had subsequently stated you were now 'kobun' and would from then on have to follow all of his commands.

It had only stopped when Taiga had threatened to run away with you.

Speaking of which.

Taiga.

The woman had stormed out, in as much of an anger as you had ever seen her. The 'Tiger' of course was fit to show anger, though most of it was little more than childish tantrums. This was a genuine, adult worry, the kind of which you had not seen from her in a very long time now. Taiga… rarely ever acted her age, though she was considered an 'adult' if only by the standards of Japanese society.

But she was upset and worried, even you could tell that. Taiga was worried, Caster was… angry, both were likely to tar you for approaching them, but neither was one you were willing to leave alone. Especially since in both cases their frustration was directly caused by you. To leave them to sulk while you practiced in the shed would be… well, it would go against anything you ever believed in.

Drying your hands off on the towel, you have a brief, mental debate as to whom to visit first. But the debate is short lived, as with the snow rapidly piling up outside and the temperature only dropping. To put off delaying Taiga any longer would only make the trip that much more unpleasant. And not just for the outside cold, as Taiga got colder she tended to get more… catty.

With a sigh you make your way outside, bristling from the sudden blast of cold. The snow was up to a few inches in what was now the early night, and it robbed whatever warmth remained of the day. Your shirt had only just vaguely dried from the sweat you had caked it in just an hour prior, and it was seeing fit to remind you of that fact as the chill bit into your flesh.

The garden, such that it was around you, was invisible underneath the white covering, and you hurried across the wood covered walkway towards the room Taiga had taken for herself. One of many guest rooms built into the Emiya residence, and one she had borrowed more than once over the years. It was a small, one story thing, but newer than the rest of the house. That, in itself, was part of the reason she also nabbed it when she had a reason, it had the newest heater.

The only sign of life was a pale yellow light barely glowing past the closed shades, and you made your way up to the door and rapped your fingers against it.

"Don't want to talk to you~!" Taiga's voice calls out.

You reach for the door and try the handle, only to find it locked. A victorious laugh sounds from inside.

"I have locked the door! This is a fortress that shall never be conquer-"

Taiga's voice is cut off by the sound of your key in the lock, and with a quick twist the door opens with a creak. It opens slowly, almost mockingly to reveal the interior. 'Taiga's room', much like the woman herself, was rather scattershot. Clothes laid around, most missing the hamper by a good several feet. Books, school textbooks mostly, sat around in loose piles, along with a small mound of papers she was currently grading at her desk.

Frankly, you didn't know where the desk came from, it was aged, honestly one of the oldest things in the house, with a little hanging lamp that just barely provided enough light to work under. There you saw Taiga, the woman glaring at you. A pen was held loosely in her grip from where she had been grading schoolwork.

She narrows her eyes, then looks away petulantly. "I don't want to talk to you Shirou!"

You close the door behind you, and come to a stop a few feet away from your guardian. Then you bow your head. "Taiga… sorry. It's been a very busy day…s."

Taiga snaps her head back towards you. "An apology isn't enough! You skipped school and brought a stranger home, do you know how upset I am at you!?"

You didn't really have an excuse for missing a school day… but. "I couldn't just leave someone to bleed out in the park."

"You could have taken her to the hospital." Taiga says, frowning at you.

"She didn't want to go to the hospital, and the house was closer." You defend.

"Since when do you listen to someone bleeding out all over the floor whether or not they should be going to the hospital!?" Taiga asks.

You… don't really have a response for that.

Taiga moves a hand to rub at her nose, "you don't know how to answer that, do you. You never think about anything as long as you can help someone."

You have no response to that one either, though that one you feel nowhere near as guilty about.

Taiga shakes her head from side to side, the hand dropping as she stares at you. The frown is gone, instead replaced by a far more damaging expression. That of someone being worried about you. "Where were you even today? Do you know how scared I was when you weren't home? With that woman being gone as well?"

You shift, somewhat awkwardly. "We were getting groceries, I was exhausted after the night before and ended up sleeping until late in the day. By the time I woke up it was too late to head to school."

"Yeah? Then where's the groceries?"

You look to the side. "They… got dropped."

"Why?"

"I had to save someone." You repl-

There's a light thwack against your head, nothing even remotely painful, just enough to let you know something hit it. You look back to see that Taiga has produced her shinai from… somewhere, and tapped it against the side of your head. Her expression has shifted away from worry, towards pure, raw anger.

"Do you think I don't worry about you Shirou?" Taiga asks, plainly. "You come home with a strange woman, you sleep for twelve hours, then you go out and do it again! What would Kiritsugu think?"

You… don't rightly know what Kiritsugu would think about any of that. "Sorry, Taiga."

Taiga crosses her arms, looking away. "Sorry isn't going to cut it. I've brought your homework home and expect you to have it all done by tomorrow at noon. I also brought home your gear because Ayaka asked, it's your job to clean it and get some practice in."

"Of course," you reply quietly. And that doesn't surprise you on either account, despite her… proclivities, Taiga was a good teacher. As for Ayaka, with the tournament coming up she was harder on the club in general to practice their archery. Though you didn't think you really needed it. Frankly, it wasn't even something you enjoyed these days, but Taiga had insisted you stayed in so that you had more than a single hobby, that being fixing things.

You turn to leave, not quite willing to face Taiga more at the moment, only for her to grab your arm. You blink in surprise, staring at the hand, then trail back to her face. She has a look of seriousness, dead seriousness. Something you had been seeing a lot on her face in the past twenty four hours or so. "Be careful around that woman Shirou. "I don't know anything about her but Raiga does. That's never a good thing. She's dangerous."

"She is dangerous," you admit. "But she also needed my help… I don't think she's a danger to anyone in the house though."

"How can you know that?" Taiga asks.

"I don't," you reply, and Taiga drops your arm. "But I just… she just needed my help, and I was and am capable of giving it."

"That's not enough reason for you to trust someone, Shirou." Taiga replies. "That's a way to get used."

"Maybe," you admit. "But as long as I can help someone I will."

Taiga's hand moves towards your face, and for one brief moment you worry you were about to be slapped. Instead she ruffles your hair, her face gaining a rather catlike smile. "Stupid boy! The homework is just the start, I'll come up with another punishment for you for being stupid on top of making me worry!"

You duck under the hand after a moment, Taiga going for another swipe before your hand reaches the knob of the door. "Night Taiga."

"Night Shirou," Taiga replies, sticking out her tongue at you as you escape into the night.

—

You don't feel cold as you walk back out of her room and into the house. Taiga tends to have that effect on you. She was, arguably, the best friend you had ever had… even despite the rather rapid swings in mood she tended to perform. Half of it was put on, half of it was just her. That bit at the end there was… definitely put on, but with Taiga, that was just part of what made her her. You were no doubt going to be on the receiving end of several of her pranks tomorrow, but if it alleviated her worries it was also completely worth it.

You slide open the door to the main building, and shut it behind you, allowing the warmth present by the just used kitchen and dining area to wash over you. You allow yourself a long and slow breath, your eyes going over the room, then you start making your way down the hallway towards the room Caster is staying in. It takes less than fifteen seconds to reach your door, and the moment you raise your hand to knock against the wooden frame, the door slides open. Caster wasn't standing on the other side of it, instead she was across the room, standing in front of a small study desk that had been stored in a closet. On it was a previously empty notebook, now filled with arcane scribbling of a style you couldn't make anything of. Her clothes, the new ones, sat folded neatly on her futon, along with a pair of spare slippers on the floor. Caster though, wasn't moving, or even looking at you. She was staring down at the book.

As you watch, a pen raises from the desk to scribble into the book, then the book closes on its own. Then, and only then does Caster turn to look at you. Her hood was down, revealing her blue hair and elven ears, along with her blue eyes that lacked anything resembling emotion. She didn't seem surprised to see you, or annoyed like Taiga was. You had expected her to be angry, she certainly was when you got back home. But instead, she showed nothing. Whether that was true to her emotions or not you couldn't say.

"What is it you require, master?" Caster asks.

"It's alright to call me Shirou," you say again for the second time today. "And I was just wanting to check up on you."

Caster tilts her head, her hair shifting with the movement. "For whatever purpose? I was not injured, I am merely low on mana."

"I knew you weren't injured, I just… wanted to see how you are doing."

Caster blinks, apparently surprised. Or is acting like she is surprised. "I am fine, Shirou. Tired. But I have no issues functioning as your servant. Of course, if that Servant were to chase us to this abode I can do little more than run away again."

"We'll deal with that if it happens, but… regardless. I still am not comfortable with you calling yourself my servant." You reply.

"That is what I am, or perhaps would you like me to refer to myself as your slave?" Caster replies, a thin lace of poison in her tone.

"Absolutely not," you reply, sighing. "But I helped you because I could, not because I expected to get anything out of it."

Caster closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them again. "Was there something else you required Shirou?"

You shift, a bit uneasily. "If you are low on mana you can drain me again, if you think it would be for the best." You were a bit worried it would cause you to collapse again, but then Taiga would likely shake you awake regardless.

"That was a malfunction of the seal, attempting to refill my essence as fast as possible," Medea says. Then she steps towards you.

"I don't rightly know how servants work… but last time you were low on mana you said you were about to disappear."

Caster raises a hand towards your head, and you brace yourself. Only for Caster to extend a finger and poke you. "That will not be necessary Shirou. I am not in any danger of losing my essence. However, until I have recovered my mana I will be useless in a fight, as I stated previously."

"I have no plan of getting into fights unless someone is put into danger. If that becomes needed you can take whatever you need."

That causes an amused smile to creep onto Caster's face, but she does not comment on your statement. "I can simply kill mortals and absorb their souls if you require me to gain mana quickly?"

That causes any amount of levity you were feeling top like a rock in a well. "... Caster?"

Caster tilts her head again, blinking innocently. "You are in a war, and I shall require power. Should you not allow me to do what is necessary? Fuyuki is filled with people that are not worth anything bar the mana they do not know they possess. I, however, am a being made of mana."

"That isn't acceptable in any way, shape, or form. Take whatever you need from me to live, but you can't hurt other people." You reply.

Caster smiles, a very dangerous smile. Then her eyes flit to the back of your hand. "If you do not wish for me to do it, you can simply command me not to. The seals are quite binding."

You…

This is too sudden.

This is all coming too quickly to be anything but planned. Is she testing you? Or does she want you to use the seals. You don't know, Sakura stated it would give an irrefutable order. But… No. Absolutely not, you wouldn't do that to anyone unless you had no other choice, and you feel like Caster is still asking you, not threatening to do it. "I wouldn't force that on anyone. But if you tried to hurt other people I'd fight you myself."

Caster's smile drops. "If that is your wish, my master. Then I shall not, it will, however, take some time for my reserves to build up once more. Thankfully with your circuits on the mend it would not take as much time as it would normally."

You nod, letting out tension you had been holding for the past half minute.

"But I do have, a perhaps simple, question for you."

"Yeah?"

Caster tilts her head, blatant curiosity on her face. "Today you used a spell, it was quite an impressive one at that. You stated previously that you knew nothing of magecraft, yet that was quite a feat. Wherever did you learn it?"

It was instinct, you would blame instinct for the fact that you had started to answer 'Circe', even though she had explicitly told you not to. Perhaps it was the nervousness of the whole situation. Your mouth opened and your tongue moved to form the word, then you stopped, as you felt something press against the bottom of it, something sharp. It's not painful, and you don't taste blood or even have a real discomfort. But there's a lingering threat there. You close your mouth, then swallow.

"It was… in one of my father's old books."

Caster arches a brow. "Truly? Then I would very much like to see them at some point."

You rub your tongue against your teeth, swallowing once more before speaking. "I… will see if I can find them for you at some point. It has been several years."

Caster smiles, very faintly. "Thank you Shirou, now if there is nothing else I would like to sleep."

"...Yes, good night Caster."

"Good night Shirou."

—

You looked slightly ridiculous standing in front of your mirror with your tongue rolled back, but what you saw there was less than pleasant. A bright red line like that from a marker ran across the bottom of your tongue from edge to edge, and just below it was what almost looked like a tiny drawing of… a pig?

You let your tongue fall back down, staring at your reflection in the mirror. Today was… by all accounts a long day, but hopefully you could at least get some rest in your sleep.

Hopefully.

You switched to your nightclothes and crawled into the bed, sleep claimed you quickly, and with it… dreams.

—

You dreamt…

[] [Of a Bloody Catastrophe]

[] [Of a Weeping Woman]

[] [Of Circe's Island]

---

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