My first Fate/Zero fanfic! I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a while, and now, I think that I finally found the time to get started on it. So, please enjoy the beginning of Knighted.
Chapter 1
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne was definitely not in the mood for an interruption to his morning. As he had walked down the streets of Fuyuki City to reach school for the first time this semester, he had experienced one of the more calming strolls in recent memory. He had awoken to a beautiful sunrise, ate light breakfast of toast, and managed to walk to school completely unperturbed, allowing him to lose himself in his thoughts and musing about the world around him.
You could say that Diarmuid Ua Duibhne was an interesting man. As far as Fuyuki High School went, he was the big man on campus, with dashing good looks elevated by a beauty mark directly under his right eye and wild jet black hair that contrasted with his hypnotic orange eyes. His grades weren't anything amazing, but they were good enough for him to be considered smart, and the girls were all over him. As far as things went, he had a pretty good life, he figured.
With his bag slung over his right shoulder and uniform, which consisted of a teal shirt, black tie, and a white jacket, all paired with a pair of black slacks and dark shoes, unbuttoned, he sauntered through the front gates of the school, which was a modern institution, with one large school building in the center of the campus and various gyms and other smaller buildings scattered around it haphazardly.
Suddenly, his peaceful pace was interrupted by someone pushing past him aggressively, almost knocking him over with the force with which he was pushed with. However, he kept himself upright and immediately glanced at the culprit, annoyed at the disturbance.
"Hey, what was that for?" He muttered to himself as he took a mental snapshot of the person who had shoved him. It was a blonde haired girl with a short ponytail, and the rest of her hair falling over her face in soft blonde bangs. She was fairly short and wore the Fuyuki High uniform, which was essentially the same as his, with the sole difference being that she wore a black skirt, rather than a pair of pants.
She had the back of her head turned towards him, only glancing back at him slightly, revealing the deep green shade of her eyes for a moment before she turned away and continued on her way, obviously determined to get wherever she was going.
He admitted that she was rather pretty, with soft and attractive features that were amplified by the odd color of her eyes that made her seem distinctly foreign, as if she didn't belong to the area. If it wasn't for the fact that she had so rudely interrupted his morning, he likely would have done some flirting with her. However, if she had no interest in him, he wasn't going to waste any of his time on her.
In her haste, the girl bumped into another group of boys that Diarmuid instantly recognized as being part of the baseball team.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" One of the boys yelled at the girl, who paid them no heed.
"Hey, listen when we're talking to you!" Another boy growled, grabbing the girl's shoulder roughly and pulling her towards them. Surprisingly, the girl did not seem to be fazed at all, instead keeping a completely straight face as she stared down the boys.
Diarmuid sighed. He wasn't really one to advocate violence, despite the fact that the girl had rudely bumped into him earlier and neglected to even acknowledge his existence. Unfortunately, it meant that he would have to step in.
"All right guys, let's just leave her alone." He drawled as he walked up to the stop group of baseball players, who had the girl pushed up against a wall, still a blank expression on her face. If anything, she seemed to be daring them to continue with her silence.
"Move along Diarmuid. This is none of your business." One of the players retorted, and Diarmuid shook his head in frustration. If it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't stand to see women abused, he would have just kept going. However, now that he had started, he had no intention of leaving until he finished his business.
"Look, if it involves a beautiful girl like this, it's definitely my business." He stated, stepping in between the boys and the girl, making it clear that he wouldn't budge. For a second, he locked eyes with the players, letting them know that he wasn't joking around and that he was really going to stand his ground, despite the fact that he was outnumbered three to one.
"All right. Let's get to class." The ringleader of the group ordered, giving up on the girl who they didn't really want to waste their time with anyways. As they finally left, Diarmuid breathed in relief, glad that his bluff had worked.
"Jeez, you're just looking for a fight, aren't you?" Diarmuid groaned in annoyance, turning to the girl, who seemed intent on pushing him out of the way once more.
"I don't need your help. I'm not some damsel in distress." She snapped impatiently, walking past him, but not quickly enough to lose Diarmuid, who quickened his pace to match hers.
"So you do talk." He chuckled, now walking directly next to her, not willing to leave her completely alone after she had practically forced him to step in and intervene on her behalf.
"Just because I don't have time to waste on you doesn't mean that I'm a mute." The girl replied, staring straight ahead.
"You know, an apology would be nice." Diarmuid suggested, to which the girl snorted.
"For what?" She asked, causing him to shake his head in disbelief. She couldn't really be this dense, could she?
"You know, for walking straight into me this morning." Diarmuid replied, still irritated by the incident.
"All right, I'm sorry." The girl said, stopping in her tracks, "Happy now?"
"Very." Diarmuid said with a triumphant smirk on his face.
Convinced that their conversation was now done, the girl began on her way once more, leaving Diarmuid utterly confused by her cold demeanor and standing in the middle of the sidewalk, dumbfounded.
"Say, Gil, do you know anything about that girl?" Diarmuid asked, gesturing to the occupant of the seat in the very front of the class, who was currently studying out of a textbook, despite the fact that class had not started yet.
"Hm, you mean Arturia Pendragon?" Gilgamesh snorted, uninterested in the topic, "Yeah, what about her?"
"I was just wondering who she was. I've never seen her around." He replied, leaning back in his seat.
"She's been in our class for all of high school. She always gets one of the top grades, but she doesn't really talk to anyone." Gilgamesh informed Diarmuid, who nodded along interestedly.
"Really?" He whispered to himself, absolutely intrigued by the mysterious girl who had bumped into him that morning. There was just something about her that made him want to know more about her, as if she were appealing to some long buried feelings of his, or something.
"Don't tell me you want to go out with her." Gilgamesh groaned, imagining what would be on his friend's mind.
Diarmuid shook his head vigorously, "No way, not yet. That's no way to treat a lady. I just want to talk to her, that's all."
"What's up with that chivalrous attitude?" Gilgamesh chuckled, amused by Diarmuid's words.
He shrugged his shoulders slightly, "You know me. That's just how I am with women."
"Yeah. That must be why you're so popular." Gilgamesh replied, turning to face frontwards as the teacher walked into class.
For her part, Arturia kept her head buried in her textbook, doing her best to comprehend the material before her eyes as quickly as she could. She could hear some whispers, and the mention of her name caused her ears to prick up in attention, but nothing more.
She was used to it by now. The fact was that people didn't understand why exactly she didn't act like all of the other girls and instead, chose to study. And to be honest, she didn't care what other people thought. All that really mattered to her was the Holy Grail of making it to a top university and hopefully bringing back prestige to her family.
It didn't matter to her that she was a woman, because despite that, she was going to bring back pride for the Pendragon name that had been tainted by years of infighting and destruction within the family. And because of that, she didn't have time to act like a normal girl, not that she really wanted to anyways. If anything, she felt more comfortable when she was acting less feminine. It was freer and open, without all of the hassle that being a proper lady came with.
She was going to one day be the head of the Pendragon family regardless, so she figured that she should get used to acting like a man anyways. Better now than later, when she could be taken advantage of.
"Diarmuid."
Arturia blinked once, unsure if that sound had just been her imagination. Deciding that she had been staring at the same page for too long, she placed her book down on the desk to give her eyes a rest. As she did, the curious face of a handsome teen was revealed, staring directly at her face.
In surprise, she almost fell out of her chair as she weakly raised her arms up in an effort to defend herself, caught completely off guard.
"What are you doing?" She stammered, blushing slightly as she realized that it was only the boy she had bumped into on the way to school.
"Diarmuid. That's my name. I just wanted to introduce myself." He replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck and tilting his head downwards, allowing a single strand of his wavy black hair to fall over his face.
"Oh. Arturia." She replied nervously, unsure of what to do in such a situation. Usually, her icy demeanor was enough to get people to stay away from her, so she had no idea what to do when someone actually mustered up the courage to approach her like this man was doing.
"Nice to meet you, Arturia." Diarmuid said, relishing the sound of her name as it rolled off his lips.
"Sure." She replied coolly, returning her gaze to her textbook, now that she had confirmed that she was still sane.
"Why exactly do you like reading so much?" Diarmuid questioned, glancing at the title of the book.
"Do you always ask these many questions?" Arturia snapped in response, growing increasingly impatient with Diarmuid.
"I was just wondering, since I haven't really talked to you before. I just like to know a little about everyone." He replied innocently. Arturia lowered her book once more, intent on berating the man for continuing to disturb her, but when she saw the genuine look and soft smile on his face, she felt her throat run dry and was unable to say anything in response.
"I've got to study to get into a top university. Now you know a little about me and you can leave me alone." She said quickly, flustered by her natural reaction to him.
Confused, though not totally unaware of the effect he had on her, Diarmuid nodded glancing at her phone that she had placed out on her desk. It was a surprisingly basic and generic phone in a dull grey, not at all what he would have expected a girl to have in her possession. Without a second thought, he snatched it off of the desk and rapidly began typing on the small keyboard.
"What are you doing?" Arturia demanded, grabbing his wrists and wrestling her phone out of his grasp.
"I was just putting down my contact information, just in case you wanted to talk to me again." Diarmuid answered with a flirtatious wink.
"Like I would choose to talk to you!" She replied, burying her face back into her book once more.
"Like I said, just in case." Diarmuid repeated with a small grin, glad that he had managed to evoke so much emotion out of the previously icy Arturia Pendragon.
As he sauntered away and back to his desk, chatting with several girls, Arturia glanced at the man who she knew to be Fuyuki High School's most popular student.
Why exactly had he chosen to talk to her, when he had previously ignored her before? Was he really interested to know more about her, or was it all just a joke?
She stared down at the screen of her phone, which had Diarmuid's number listed right there in her contacts list, which was short, to say the least. Actually, nonexistent would be a better word to describe the current state of her phone, which now held a grand total of three numbers, one for the store that she worked part-time at, one for her uncle Merlin, and now, one for Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. For a moment, she contemplated erasing the number completely, with her finger hovering right over the button that would delete Diarmuid's presence from her life.
"One more couldn't hurt." She decided, flipping her phone shut and placing it into the pocket of her white uniform jacket.
Please, leave any and all thoughts you guys have about this story! I am writing several stories at once right now, and I don't want to waste time on a story that no one wants to see continued, so please, let me know if you guys want this story to continue or not, because I am on the fence about that right now. So please, leave your ideas or thoughts, either in the form of a review or a PM. Thanks for reading!