capeandcowllogs | The sky is red and the sea is blue

Entry tags:

The sky is red and the sea is blue

WHO: Tsundere #1 (

swordedpast) and Tsundere #2 (

gandere)
WHERE: Near the MAC
WHEN: Monday, January 28th
WARNINGS: Probably nothing except general emotional dysfunction.
SUMMARY: Archer nearly gets dragged into the Wild Hunt; Rin intervenes.
FORMAT: Prose.

He's late coming back from work tonight. Actually, he's not even coming back from work exactly, because he got off a couple of hours ago. It's just that since then, Archer has been weaving his way through the side streets and alleys of the City, trying to shake some pursuer he knows is after him. Whoever or whatever they are, he knows he can't bring them home to Rin. If he confronts them, it has to be somewhere safely far away from her. Or at least, that's what he spent about an hour and a half doing. After that point, he realized that there's no singular pursuer on his tail, but that something dark and magic is afoot. In which case, Rin could be in as much trouble as he is already.

The thought also crosses his mind that maybe Rin could help with this malady--after all, she's the master of magecraft here. He dismisses this thought quickly--he's already making plans to shield her from his troubles when he goes after that girl in Southwest Phoenicia, after all. He can't let himself rely on her for this.

He's still thinking that he can't let himself rely on Rin to help him when he's two blocks away from the MAC and the sky opens up above him. It's midwinter, but thunder roars in his ears and lightning blinds him. Hail falls--hail, at the end of January. Now he's certain this is magic, but that certainty doesn't help him, because he's just as certain that his pursuers are here. He goes from a swift walk to a run, trying to suppress the rising dread, or at least channel it into a productive urge. It doesn't matter if they're chasing him, but Rin may be in danger, and that's something else.

Archer makes it almost to the MAC itself before he realizes that it's not just rain and thunder he's hearing--it's hoofbeats. And they aren't just chasing him: they're asking him to join. He comes to a stop in the middle of a small park. The lights of the MAC would be easily visible through the rain, if he weren't surrounded by the ghostly cavalry roaring past him.

He's two hours late for dinner, and he's trying to remember why he shouldn't take up arms against all sinners and ride. It's something to do with what he's two hours late for, and who's waiting there with it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's late.

Rin's never shown patience when it comes to Archer. Right from the day she called him forth into the world she was a few minutes too early for favorable conditions and since then has been struggling to keep up with his schedule. Between the Emiya's erratic sleeping habits back home and the one she's come to learn more about in the City, Rin's insistence on being timely has failed often.

When it comes to dinner, Archer's never late. Not anymore. The last time he failed to arrive in a timely fashion left her hurt. The pain barely was around before anger consumed it when the discovery of why he was late for that dinner became clear. When he fails to show up a hour later, Rin worries he's gotten himself into another fight.

She sits on the couch with her phone in hand in hopes that he'll send her a message.

At least that's what she did for the first hour. By time the second one nears, she's grown restless enough to tug on her nice jacket despite the storm. If it gets ruined, it'll all be Archer's fault for forcing her to go out in this weather in the first place. Once justified, she slips out into the storm without a second thought. He's her Servant so she's drawn towards him as a moth would be to the flame or perhaps it's vice versa as he's the pest while she's the passionate one full of warmth.

A stench of undeath plagues her nostrils, but she recognizes it as something else entirely. Not even she needs jewels to tell that the spirits are storming throughout the City and once she happens upon the scene, she's cautious enough to go unnoticed. The visages are easy enough to pick through so when she notices her knight in red shining brightly amongst the desaturated images, something unknown twists her stomach.

"Archer!"

He doesn't look like much of a knight right now. He looks more benighted.

Archer's head is bowed against the rain (he'll regret that later when it dries and he can't get his bangs back up), his hands lifted as if to push away the spectral riders around him. Not that it helps.

He finds himself voicing his objections to the urge he feels rising within. "I'm not a proper ghost by any accounts, so leave. I don't belong with you and you're a nuisance for asking--"

Rin's voice cuts through the rain to him. His eyes widen and he drops his hands back to his side. "You idiot, who told you to come out into this mess?"

He doesn't know much, but he knows she belongs somewhere safer than this right now.

"I come of my own accord." Rin states back as though it were obvious, holding out a hand in his direction. "My Archer's found himself in a mess and it's only inevitable I clean it up. You're always picking up the pieces after me so it'll be okay this time for me to intervene."

It isn't often she shows this possession of him to his face. Usually that's done through one-on-one conversations with others instead, but she fails to realize that she's claiming him once more face-to-face. Her Servant. Her Archer. Her Emiya. It all flows together in her mind and even a genius like herself can mix them up every now and again.

"Dinner's grown cold and now my favorite ribbons are soaked." Rin complains loudly in order to draw the attention of the fiends around them to no avail. They really have no interest in her right now. "So I think I'll take my anger out on these stupid apparitions."

It's easier for him to accept it when she doesn't say it--then it's just part of the rhythm of the household, something he naturally picks up on and falls into without questioning. When she lays claim to him outright, it's easy to recognize and rebel against, here in the bitter storm. If it's such a simple thing as a choice between the side of someone who cares for him and service to a cold force of destruction...well, that puts things into perspective.

The storm lulls just enough for his dull flat words to be heard. "Then you'll take it out on me as well. Even someone so self-indulgently oblivious as you can tell, right Master? I won't deny it any longer. I belong with them after all."

He might have been insisting otherwise a moment ago, but that was before she reminded him what the alternative was.

His words ignite something deep within her mind and the fire that burns in her chest comes to life along her fingertips. Normally she's more aware of this in order to keep ruining her clothes, but she neglects the sleeves of her jacket tonight.

Fire in the rain. She really is a master of mistakes tonight.

"Shut up." There's no room to argue as she throws the orbs of fire towards the nearest spirits in her frustration. "I can't hurt you so stop saying pointless things."

She's not like him. She can't decide one day to betray him and leave him to be hurt by others so long as she can breathe. If these things want to take him, then they'll have to eliminate her first.

But the spectral horsemen have no interest in Rin. She might make a decent enough addition to their number, as she has died here in the City--but Archer has died both here and back in his own world, so he's a far more tempting target. At least right now.

"I'm not a Rider, but I can pretend for tonight, so--" He's almost ready to go with them. Almost. He's reaching out a hand for them when her angry words cut into him, and so he hesitates just long enough for the magical fire to slam into the spirit he's reaching for. "Ah...?!"

He turns, and even as the storm starts to pick up again, he sees her face as she fights spirits that might as well be from hell to protect him. He can throw away all his own efforts, but how can he do that to her?

His voice carries through the storm. "You're so inconvenient, Master..."

"I know."

There's no denying how much a pain in the ass she is to him. Three months is all it's taken for her to comprehend that she's causing more problems than she can resolve.

He works at least two jobs to support them both and never has any free time. The resolution to this is for Rin to pick up a job herself, so she looks. In the meantime, she's unable to hold her own weight. She eats less in hopes it'll be no more of a strain on him than if she ate to her heart's content. That just makes him cook more. It irritates her really, but all she can do is complain that it's his fault she's gaining so much flab on her legs.

Not to mention all the trouble she keeps causing for them. Right now it's ignoring the danger surrounding her and choosing instead to focus on saving him. Maybe if she does this one task, it'll lessen the burden of guilt on her shoulders just a bit.

"I won't stand by while these thieves try to take what belongs to me, Archer." The flames die down around her hands as she pensively glances towards him. "Unless you want to go willingly. Then I'll come with you."

Anger flares up inside him. It's usually hard for him to be angry at her, to be really angry at her--but she's doing a good job of making it easier here with such absurd comments. It's so much more appropriate for him to run with dark spirits than stay where it's warm next to her, so why does she have to make it difficult by objecting? It's just like when she put that command spell on him.

Except maybe a little worse, in a way, because she's telling him he has a choice. And if he has a choice there shouldn't be a question--he should follow the urge inside to go with them, right? But it's impossible when she's standing there in the rain looking at him like that. Going with them would mean leaving her like this, and he can't leave her when she's not smiling.

"You're really a pain, but that's how it's always been, so I'll stay at your side for now," he starts to say, sighing; as he turns his back on the ghosts, he draws close enough to her to be heard even through the storm. "We do have an agreement, after--"

Somewhere after I'll stay at your side for now, the hunters behind Archer come to the conclusion that he's not their companion, so he must be their prey. As he speaks, two spectral hounds emerge from the shadows around the horses and lunge at him.

"Neun, Acht, Sieben!
Stil, schießt Beschießen, Erschie Ssung!"

Rin wastes no time in making icicles rain down towards the hounds who dare threaten to harm her Servant. They might be calling out for her to join their cause, to turn on Archer, but there's a louder cry from her heart that keeps her focused.

Yes, nothing can keep Archer from her.

He was going to return home with her and they'll curl up on the couch with a nice cup of tea just to feel the warmth back in their bones. Maybe they could order out and just lounge after this. This is the first time she signifies something as being wrong with her. Archer's in danger and all she can think of is how they will eat after this is concluded.

"Archer, stand back. I'm going to destroy them all."

The Rin he was familiar with has taken a tactical retreat; instead he's faced with a Master who's more magus than girl. With an air of killing intent around her, she faces the hoard of apparitions without fear.

"Rin...?" He blinks at her through the rain.

And then pain flares in his right leg as the jaws of one hound start to close on it. Ghostly teeth that shouldn't exist, much less be sharp enough to hurt, cut through flesh--

But before the injury can jump from unpleasant to dangerous, magic rains ice down on the beasts. With an indistinct howl, they both fade back from Archer, and he stumbles slightly, more from surprise than pain (he's felt so much worse, after all). He knows he should say something bold and arrogant as he turns to face the horde of spirits, but he can't--he can't even turn to face them at all. He's too busy staring at Rin's face.

She's not supposed to look like that. That's an expression Saber might have worn, not the girl he's supposed to protect. She's beautiful like this and it worries him that he thinks so.

At the last moment, he unfreezes enough to jump to the side. He moves, and he tries to stamp out the sudden impulse he has that maybe it would be all right to fight side by side with her when she's like this, as a partner and not a Servant.

Once Archer is away from her targets, Rin wastes no time in laying into them with various spells of magecraft. Sometimes there was an incantation spoken, but most of the time there wasn't. There was a glow that lit up along her arm and a look in her eyes that fit a desperate lover longing to protect the only thing she has.

The conclusion of the Fifth Holy Grail War made her this person. Her existence for the ten years prior were the loneliest ones of her life and here in the City, she was given the rare chance to start a life with someone new and yet familiar. A man who doesn't cower when she wakes up on the wrong side on the bed or knows the way she likes her tea. There's no one more perfect for Rin.

Well, it wasn't as though Archer was perfect. He was a man with many flaws, but essentially she was a girl with just as many problems. An existence without Archer now seems impossible to her and the thought grips her heart painfully. Never again will she let Archer leave her.

"Haa..."

Thinking about Archer made it easier to ignore the exhaustion that's beginning to take over. With ragged breaths, she lifts her head towards him with the look of realization. The obvious epiphany reveals itself here in the rain as she opens her mouth to confess.

The weight of her jacket makes it hard for her to find the strength and with how much rain the jacket's absorbed, it's practically hard to make her out in the dark of night. The only color is the vibrant blue of her eyes and the fading illumination in her arm. Even her skin has lost it's color due to exposing herself to the cold of her magecraft.

"They must realize how special you are, Archer... Well, they can't want you as much as I want you."

The storm starts to fade. The ghostly attackers aren't all defeated, but they've taken enough damage from Rin's fury that they're beating a quick retreat to find easier prey. As the spirits leave, the foul weather trails after them. The last of the rain patters to the ground, and suddenly the weather is cold but fair again, with the moon and the streetlights providing plenty of illumination.

That's unfortunate, because Archer is suddenly terrified of seeing Rin's face. He's terrified of hearing what she has to say instead of letting the storm carry it away. And he doesn't want her to see his face as she speaks, either.

It's too late, though. He's standing not far from a streetlamp, so the pain in his eyes is all too clear, and it has nothing to do with the blood soaking his leg where the hellhound's teeth grazed him. He's kind of angry too, actually. He'd have liked to keep watching her when she's like this--to keep looking at that head held high, pale with the effort she's put forth. He'd have liked to look at her like this and feel the need to protect her sneak inside him where he's used to only having empty bitterness and self-loathing, but--

When she says something like that, he thinks he's done the opposite of protecting her. He's probably broken her somehow.

"Is that so?" His shoulders slump, and he lowers his gaze. "Sorry, Rin. I really got it wrong this time."

"That's alright."

Her words are meant to encourage him, to really convince him that everything will be okay, as her arm drops to her side in her exhaustion. The body of this magus isn't meant to fight as she has and despite the resilience she put on display moments ago, her spirit to stand tall leaves with the hoard.

"I'll just have to be right when you're wrong. That's why we're..."

Rin recognizes too easily that she's saying things she doesn't mean to say as the crushing weight of realization overwhelms her. Combined with the low amount of prana coursing through her circuits (barely enough for Archer, but she's at her limit) and the subtle winter wind is enough to bring this star crashing down into the earth.

But it takes much more than that to encourage Archer, and it's impossible to convince him that everything will be okay, because he knows it won't. Fortunately, he knows one other thing for certain: that when Rin falls, he needs to catch her.

It's good to have a Servant's speed. Rin never hits the ground; she's in his arms in a second. He's grateful--grateful that he could catch her, and grateful that she didn't get to finish what she was saying. It was probably something he couldn't bear to hear.

He makes his way back into the MAC and to their shared apartments as quickly as he can. Somewhere along the way, he comes to the alarming realization that it feels good and right to be holding her, that he likes the way her head rests against his chest...so he does the natural thing and shuts down that part of himself with a thought. He detaches himself completely from emotion and simply thinks on what he has to do: making sure Rin is safe and will be well.

That's how she winds up on her bed, in her underwear (yes, he took off her ribbons and her stockings as well) and wrapped in all the blankets in both apartments. The bed has been moved a bit, dragged closer to the heat. Archer himself sits next to the bed, waiting in perfect silence. He hasn't even bothered to fix his own hair from the rain. He'll simply wait until he's certain that Rin will be all right. Right now, he has no other purpose--

--and he's trying not to think about how that makes him feel.

The first thought she has when she begins to stir is that it feels nice. What 'it' is remains unknown to her, but there's warmth to fight off what might be considered an oncoming cold. She can't get sick. What happens to a Servant if their Master falls ill? Instantly her mind leaps to how Shirou was injured and Saber was seemingly unscathed as a result. Wasn't all of that excluded due to some special exception?

The fogginess doesn't leave her mind as the blanket moves up over her mouth to her nose. If she breathes just a little harder, it'll heat up the area around her face more. Her hair is around her face and heavy enough to leave her wondering if she passed out right after they got home. That's right, she went to help Archer and they walked back here.

At least that's what her sleepy mind is convinced of.

It isn't until she rolls over on her side to look at the man sitting nearby with confusion. Since when was Shirou in this place? More importantly, what the hell is he doing here? He should be back at home studying or something more important than dying his hair.

Oh.

"Archer?" She hasn't even noticed her current condition as her head rolls back flat against the pillow. "Is it morning?"

He doesn't move when she stirs. He doesn't turn to look at her when she calls out to question him. His eyes merely flicker slightly to the side as she speaks. "It's late at night. It was still early enough in the evening when you passed out."

There's no emotion at all in his voice. It's strange, actually. With his hair askew, his bangs down on his forehead, it should be easy to see the face of the boy called Shirou in him. But he's not wearing any face that could be mistaken like that. His expression has about as much feeling as the display of a digital clock with the power cut.

He has to be this way right now, or he might have some emotions about the things Rin said to him.

It'll take her a few minutes at least to notice any such expression, so for now she focuses on herself. That's her most natural setting and so long as she's too tired to comprehend the bigger picture, she'll rely on what she does know.

"What a pain... my sleep schedule is going to be all sorts of messed up."

So she complains about something fruitless instead of her current condition. He's fortunate she hasn't tried to climb out of the bed at any rate. Then that expression of his might crack.

"We won, didn't we?"

He's grateful for her sleepy-headed self-interest, insofar as he can feel gratitude at the moment. There's other things it wouldn't do for her to notice--like all the dried blood still clinging to his leg. The hellhound didn't land a truly debilitating hit on him before Rin took it down, but it's still an injury that would send a normal human to the hospital for stitches.

"That's wrong." He does his best to keep his voice level. He's succeeding pretty well. "It's not as if it was much of a battle, but it's more like you won. I--"

--stood there, and thought that you were beautiful, and that you were someone I could fight side-by-side with.

His composure cracks, just slightly. He draws in a quick, agonized breath and ducks his head to stare bitterly down at the floor. She's really getting in the way of all his plans. This whole place is.

"You were injured."

Rin recalls that much without having to pick up on the trace of it in the air. Someone who spent a majority of her lifetime drawing out her own blood is quick to catch on to the smell. Pushing an arm up underneath her, she tries to free herself from the weight of the additional blankets.

She gives up soon after she starts.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have shown off so much." Because that's what it was. It wasn't the fear of losing Archer that drove her to attack them relentlessly. "I'll be feeling this for another few hours."

Days really. Fortunately she doesn't have a job to force her out of bed or school to attend so it'll be alright for her to just rest. Archer's leg though, Servants can heal themselves can't they? So she shouldn't worry about it for now. Those are her thoughts as her head hits the pillow once more.

"It's minor. Go back to sleep." His voice is still toneless. He's still not looking at her.

All the same, he waits until he's certain she's sleeping again before he gets up and leaves the room. It's a weakness, but he hates to leave her side.

He cleans his wound; he changes into the few spare clothes he has; he puts his hair back into place. And, unable to think of anything else to do, he makes tea for when Rin wakes up.

(He made her tea the first morning after she summoned him, too. That feels like a million years ago; how much has changed, here in this City? When did he come to assign any value to their days together here, and why can't he stop? Her body in his arms, her head on his chest--)

He brings the tea into her room and sits down once more against the bed.

If Archer tells her to sleep, then she will. There's no more questioning whether it's the right thing to do or not, she just simply does it.

Usually when she dreams, it's of the past. Sometimes of Archer's, most of the time of her own. It isn't long before she's thinking of things that can never be and of a man who is incapable of holding anything dear having her in his arms.

She snaps free of it soon enough with the invitation of tea.

"Archer?" Reaching out for him with an arm fully outstretched, she pauses to take note of how bare it is. Funny, even her pajamas were long sleeve. "What the?"

He'd hate to admit it, but here in a world where he sleeps and breathes, Archer has had some dreams of his own--and since renewing his contract with Rin, some of them have been of her past. It's something he shouldn't think on, he knows. But he can't help it. The images of her passing each day in the lonely chill of that big house stay stuck in his head, and they leave him aching for the chance to make a home for her that isn't so lonely--

It's fortunate that her puzzled awakening snaps him out of those thoughts. It's unfortunate that he's still not entirely thinking straight, because he answers the implied question casually without hesitation. "Your clothes are on the radiator; they need to dry so you don't catch cold."

"What are they doing there?"

It's taking a while to sink in, but that's to be expected when she's half asleep. If her clothes were on the radiator, then what was she wearing right now?

"Are they ruined?" Instead of questioning this very moment, she focuses on a material topic instead. "My jacket... It's going to be alright too, right?"

Cherishing it above all else came naturally when it was from him.

At least she's wearing her underwear--that was soaked too, but even when he's deadening his emotions as much as possible, Archer knows better than to risk some things.

Right now, though, he doesn't show any indication that he did anything significant at all. He simply answers her questions in the calmest possible voice. "They're drying on the heat. They'll be fine." Why does she care so much about the jacket, anyway? It's not even from their world. "I'd say 'don't run out into a storm in them again,' but it probably won't happen again...it was an unusual circumstance."

"A little bit of rain never hurt anyone. It helps plants grow and grass turn green."

An idle comment as she moves her legs out from under the covers and towards the floor. Only when she's about to throw them off of her entirely does she realize the air is touching her bare skin. With a shriek, she dives to the floor opposite of Archer, blankets following in on top of her. Don't worry, the loud thump was just her head.

"What did you do to me?!"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject