Sup, guys. AvengerEmiya here. It's been a while, right? A few months even. Now, I know I have a loooooot of catching up to do, and I'm definitely going to start updating more often, but for now, just enjoy this Mother's Day one-shot I whipped up, kay? (P.S. This is probably the only K-rated story you're ever going to get from me...)
It was the anniversary of the worst night of his life, and controversially, the most moving. The night he lost his family, but also the same night he had gained one. Tonight was the night the Great Fire blazed in Fuyuki two years ago.
It was easily the city's greatest tragedy, and when it came to dealing with such tragedies, Shirou already knew it was best not to try and keep track of them. Anniversaries were meant for celebratory occasions, not for meandering in dark pasts. It was a sentiment Kiritsugu himself had shared with Shirou when he had brought it up, but even he knew the boy couldn't just let something like that incident go; not in only two years time. So, the two spent the evening together. Kiritsugu sent Shirou off to room early in hopes the day would fall asleep quick and have the day pass him by even quicker.
Yet there he was, sitting up in his futon and sighing endlessly.
"I can't sleep... I thought I already gotten over my insomnia," the nine year old grieved.
What a terrible day it was for such a habit to resurface. Though, it figured a night like this would be cursed for him. But, of course, he couldn't forget his father's words: Anniversaries were meant for celebratory occasions, not for meandering in dark pasts.
"I know already! Geez..."
Shirou slumped back into his futon, eyes hammered shut. He thought that, perhaps with enough effort, he could force drowsiness to come. He couldn't. Sighing again, he reopened his eyes in defeat, and welcoming his gaze was a woman adorned in a white dress, with a white and golden crown on her head and smile far too adorable for whatever manner of being she was across her face.
From up above, she waved at Shirou.
"Good evening, young man."
"...B-bwaaaaaah!" he exclaimed, hopping from his futon like it had been set ablaze
"Shhh... You're far too loud," the ethereal being said. "Don't you realize how late it is right now?"
Gracefully, she floated down and eventually landed atop Shirou's futon in a proper seiza style. Despite this unprecedented etiquette, Shirou's face remained mangled with fear and confusion, because of course it would be.
"B-but Kiritsugu already told me this house wasn't haunted!" the boy said, shrinking away from the spirit.
Once again, for good reason. An entity, obviously beyond what one could consider a human being, had just manifested itself in his room. Whatever it had planned to do upon arrival, pitiful little Shirou was now at its mercy.
"Hmm? Haunted, you say?" the entity repeated weightly. "Well, yes. I suppose I am a ghost by some definitions. Not the "haunting" kind, though. I'm the friendly type. Like...Casper. I didn't come here to hurt you."
That remained to be seen. Though Shirou couldn't spot any deceit in her eyes (which could have been a trick in of itself). Still suspicious, but no longer backing off, Shirou beat his brow at the unique creature before him.
"If you didn't come to haunt me... W-what did you want then."
Really, what else could a ghost want but to go "boo" at someone?
"Nothing. Well...not with you, anyhow. I came here to fulfill a wish."
"A wish? ...Are you actually a genie then?"
"No, but I can make miracles happen for the sake of others."
Shirou's eyes lit up. "R-really?!" For once he crawled forward instead of backwards. "You can do stuff like that? You're not lying, are you? Are you?!"
"N-no... I would never lie to child," the creature said. 'Especially not when they're looking at me with big hopeful eyes.'
"So... So you could grant me a wish then? Anything I asked for?"
The entity shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but no. I just don't have the power for something like that. Even small wishes like wishing for a new bicycle are out of my hands."
The way the light flickered from Shirou's eyes, it touched the ghost on a level she couldn't quite express. So much hope was instantly drained from every part of him - from his face to his shoulders that went slump with despondance.
"Oh. So, I guess the fire... I can't wish for everyone who died then to..." Shirou sniffed, and wiped his nose.
He had already heard the answer, so there was no point in lamenting on it. Besides, he had already accepted this reality not too long ago. The creature was bemused at this sudden show of maturity. It was unprecedented for such a young boy to be so resolute. She understood then that something very bleak must have happened to him...
"Sorry for being so selfish, ghost-san."
"It's fine. It's the duty of children to wish for whatever their hearts desire, after all. And please, call me Iri. It's what everyone else used."
"Is that really your name? Well, mine's Shirou."
"Ah~❤ Such a cute name. But so tough as the same time."
Shirou's cheeks gave a little color. He wasn't used to receiving compliments from older women. ...If whatever Iri was had a gender, anyway.
"So, uh, Iri-san...what was it that you came here for?"
"Just one simple thing: I came here to fulfill the wish of a certain man."
"Wait... But you just said you didn't have the power to grant any wishes. Iri-san, were you lying!"
"Of course not! I already said I never lie to children, Shirou-kun. I really don't have the power right now. Thankfully, the wish that this man wants me to grant will not desire any type of miraculous power I might ordinarily possess."
"Really? Wow, that guy must not have any dreams at all then."
"Hmm-hmm~ But on the contrary, Shirou-kun, he dreams more than anyone else. ...He's also kinder than anyone else."
Iri said this last thing so sweet and lovingly, her already lustrous frame seemed to glow even more to accompany the words. Wondering what type of person could provoke such emotion, Shirou asked for his name.
"Who is the guy then?" he asked, arms folded.
Iri smiled. "Kiritsugu Emiya. I suspect you know about him, Shirou-kun? That I was guided to you like this means you must."
"Y-yeah... I can't believe you're looking for you old man, though."
"..."
Iri went somewhat rigid in posture at the youngster's response, though she kept her serene expression when she asked him to clarify what he had just said.
"Kiritsugu Emiya - he's my father. I'm his son, Shirou Emiya. Me and him have been living in this household for the past two years."
"..."
"You're right about him being a dreamer though. Sometimes the old man will just start talking about whatever and get caught up in his thoughts. Although, I always end up getting caught up right with him. We're just a pair of weirdos, I guess."
"..."
"Iri-san? Are you okay? You seem-"
"Mh...AAAAHH!"
"W-w-wha?! What happened?! What I say?!"
"K-Kiritsugu, to think you would have already started a new family... I... I..."
"N-new family? Dad had another family before he adopted me?"
Iri's fit came to an abrupt halt once she heard Shirou's response. "Did... Did you say you were adopted Shirou-kun?"
"Y-yeah. Two years ago, the old man saved me from that big fire where they're building that new park. I became his son after that and moved in with him."
Immensely curious of the reason for Iri's dramatic response, Shirou asked her "How are you and him connected? Were you two... husband and wife?"
"...That's not a story meant to be shared with children."
"Iri-san! That's cheating!"
"Oh? Didn't you know that genie's are known for playing tricks on those who ask for wishes from them?"
"You're not a genie! Plus, you already told me you can't grant wishes!"
"Oh, yes. You're right. Would you like me to then?"
Shirou made a face. A face that continued to change expressions for little over ten seconds.
"B-but you... You're supposed to be granting the old man a wish, not me."
"I never told you did I, Shirou? The person whose wish I'm supposed to grant belongs to an "Emiya." Not Kiritsugu Emiya; just "Emiya.""
"So...even I could get a wish granted?"
"That's right. Even you."
Shirou thought about it for a moment. "But my old man - doesn't he deserve it more than I do? I mean, according to you, he had a family once already. So that means...he lost it at some point." Shirou gazed off into the darkest corner of his room. "No. The old man definitely deserves it more than I do."
But Iri just shook her head, and put her sleeved hands around Shirou's face. She turned it around, and the boy found himself looking into a pair of motherly red eyes. He almost remembered the time he was looked at like this by someone else. Though he barely remembered her face, and had even more trouble with what color her eyes were, though they were most likely the same as his own. Her name escaped him entirely.
For whatever reason, it never really saddened Shirou that he couldn't remember his mother's name. That he had begun to forget what her voice sounded like was a much bigger cruelty in his eyes. Though, this new soft voice...
"Shirou, listen to me."
Yes, that voice - Iri's voice. It resounded with Shirou in a way so nostalgic, it nearly brought him to tears.
"That Kiritsugu is taking care of you now, and that he's even given you his name, is proof that he already has everything he wants, and everything he couldn't have, he's come to terms with. Even if I had the power to manifest any miracle you could imagine - to truly grant any wish - I know Kiritsugu would never take me up on my offer."
"...Wouldn't that just be him being his usual skeptical self, though?"
"..."
Realizing she had no real way to retort Iri smuggled the insolent red-head in-between her breasts. It was exactly what he deserved for trying to outsmart a genie.
"Phwah-! I-Iri-san! I couldn't breathe between those!"
"And thus your punishment has ended. Now, Shirou, please make you wish."
"But for what? You already said you couldn't do anything impressive."
The entity before the boy got a bit indignant. '...It's not like he's wrong, though.'
"Then wish for something mundane. It doesn't matter what it is. I'll grant it with impunity!"
Something mundane... If it was from Iri, Shirou knew exactly what it was he wanted. In a strange way, he somehow knew from the moment she had arrived in his room.
"Iri-san...could you sleep with me tonight?"
"Hmm? Do you mean-"
"Y-yeah. Like...could we sleep next to each other. Under the futon. B-but only for tonight! I won't do anything bad, I swear!"
Iri smiled. Again she smothering the boy in her bosom, though this time she gave him enough space to breathe.
"It's alright. I know you won't." She hugged him tighter. "Your wish has been granted. I'll stay next to you for the entire night, Shirou Emiya..."
He was so happy...
Was it strange to feel so happy about sleeping with a person you had only met moments ago? Whether it was or not, Shirou had never felt so lulled before in his life. Or maybe he had and he just couldn't remember the times when it had happened. Either way, slipping under the sheets together, he and Iri laid under, snug in each other's grasp.
"Goodnight, Shirou..." were the last words he heard before drifting off.
"Shiiirooouu~~~ Wake up already! It's time for breakfast!"
A much different voice woke him up the next morning. Barging into his room, just the same as she did every other morning, was the boisterous Tiger of Fuyuki - the bane of a bedridden Shirou Emiya, demon of Fuyuki city-district kendo, and pillager of the food within the Emiya household. With a quick tug of the comforter, she unveiled Shirou and urged him to his feet.
"Come on, Shirou. Breakfast is ready," Taiga said. "You know how hard I worked on it?"
"Pfft.. You? Work hard on making food? You must have had dreamt harder than I did, Fuji-nee."
The response was so sharp and across the teeth, Taiga locked up on reflex. Still dreary-eyed, Shirou ignored and walked straight past her, heading for the living room where breakfast lay in wait for him. On the way he recalled the dream he had the night before; one with a white lady who had a golden aura about her like an agent from heaven, yet behaved far too humanly to have been an angel. He dreamed that she and him talked about several things; things so mundane that they further diminished any chance Shirou had of thinking of her as divine entity.
And yet... she had the tenderness of one, and he could have sworn she enveloped him as he finally drifted off to sleep. Too much fantasy perhaps?
"Good morning," Kiritsugu said when Shirou entered the living room.
He sat at his usual place at the kotatsu, with a cigarette in his mouth; a newspaper in his hands; and an empty plate before him. He peeked over his articles to address his son.
"Sleep well last night?" he asked.
Shirou recounted everything he imagined happened last night: The lady in white. Her eccentric, yet serene personality. The motherly embrace. How oddly fulfilled he felt this morning waking up.
"Hmm... Yeah, I guess. Had a weird dream last night though."
"Really?"
As he watched Shirou sit down across from him, he folded his paper then sat it down.
Kiritsugu smiled. "Tell me about it."
So, yeah... Happy Mother's Day! (if you live in America...)