Sometimes Rin thinks that things would have been so much easier if Archer and Shirou had been normal, non-magical jealous boys.
They'd still have hated each other, of course, and probably still would have tried to kill each other, but they wouldn't have taken 'I may think that some man other than you may possibly have redeeming qualities' as 'I want you to leave this reality and never come back'.
Idiots.
Sometimes Shirou complains about Archer. This usually happens when neither of them is exactly sober: most of the time Archer is a Do Not Discuss Under Penalty of Gand.
Shirou says things like he's an idiot for leaving her like that and for not apologizing and what was with that whole Shinji business?
Rin points out that he saved her life.
Shirou says he still tied her to a chair and left her at the mercies of a guy who, if you looked up 'creep' in the dictionary, would have his picture next to it.
Rin says that Shirou's tied her to a chair before and she disliked that about the same. Also, she could've fought Shinji off. It was Shinji.
Shirou says that was a completely different situation, and he asked permission first, and his chair had cushions. And why didn't she fight him off then?
Rin says she didn't want to waste her energy.
Shirou says that's a really pathetic lie, Rin.
Rin hmphs and says that she was about to start kicking ass when Lancer showed up and died in front of her and then rescued her.
Shirou says Archer didn't know that would happen.
Rin says Archer still saved her life, and also there was this little matter of the eternal hell he was trying to get out of, and well she can't blame him for not wanting to risk it by picking fights with Gilgamesh. Who, by the way, Archer eventually killed.
Shirou says that was just him showing off.
Rin says yes, that was him showing off, and he looked more badass in one attack than Shirou did the whole fight.
Shirou says Rin couldn't see him the whole fight, except the part where he was about to be dragged into a black abyss. And that has nothing to do with the subject.
Rin says exactly.
Shirou just sighs, and Rin just looks at him and asks if he's going to kiss her sometime tonight or what.
Sometimes Shirou thinks his lover is insane.
One of those times is when Rin turns to him suddenly and says with all dead seriousness that she's going to bring Archer back.
Shirou thinks she's finally lost it. Then he realizes that she's saying this a little while after they've finished having sex, and he's not quite able to convince himself that that's a coincidence.
Sometimes mages say that because the Grail was destroyed, the world will never see the likes of Heroic Spirits again.
They don't say this if they know about the Counter Force, and they don't say this if they know about Tohsaka Rin, who is a force of nature in her own right. A force of nature that has devoted a large part of her studies to finding a way to summon a spirit without the aid of the Grail.
(Another, slightly smaller part of her studies is devoted to finding a way to punch Gaia in whatever she had that most resembled a face.)
It's completely impossible, which is par for the course for her nowadays. Teachers attempt to tell her that she should give up and move on to something more productive; they see the look on her face and fall in line.
Sometimes Rin wants to give up. Every time it looks like she's making progress, it always fails. Usually with a large explosion to accompany it. She always messes up when it's most important, after all.
She was low on jewels at the end of the war, and now the only one she still has is the one she plans to - will use to summon Archer again, like she did before. She's not exactly having financial problems, but she often gripes to Shirou that she wishes he created money and not swords.
Shirou isn't much help. Partly because Shirou is Shirou, and the most diverse his talents have gotten is making silverware. Partly because Shirou is a man and he really doesn't want to see another male in the house. The only reason he helps at all is because Rin can be very, very frightening when she wants to be.
Sometimes everything falls into place.
Waver eventually lets her look at his library in exchange for a nominal fee and an agreement that he'd be the second one to see any of her findings. Rin goes over every scrap in the place, twice, until she finds a dusty old book that has what she's looking for. She reads through it and stares in silence for a few moments.
Then she runs outside, hugs and nearly knocks over a confused Waver, and dashes the rest of the way home.
She spends the next few hours setting up the summoning circle - drawing it in her own blood this time since she doesn't have the jewels - and constantly asking Shirou what time it is and if the clocks are set correctly. It gets to the point where he just periodically sticks his head into the basement and shouts the time.
The clock chimes, and she clears her throat.
The spell itself is probably twice as draining as the one she used to summon him, and ten times as long. Her throat is dry, her knees shake, her eyes sting, her heart pounds, and she wants so badly to run upstairs and forget the whole thing, but she doesn't stop chanting until the very last word tears itself from her lips.
Her legs give out after that, and she can't lift her head enough to see more than the floor in front of her. She can't feel anything but her mana supply plummeting and there's nothing to be heard but silence.
Minutes pass, and she eventually struggles to her feet.
Then.
There in front of her, she sees him.
He's leaning against the wall, watching her with an expression at once smug, concerned, and utterly confused.
He looks like he's going to say something - possibly why am I not in a pile of rubble, possibly something else - but Rin interrupts him. She's been planning for this moment for months, after all.
You're an idiot and I haven't had a decent cup of tea since you left and Shirou's even more of an idiot than you are and you're not getting yourself killed this time and the world can survive without you helping it for a while and if you plan on getting yourself killed again you're a fool and-
She closes her mouth, shakes her head, and tries again. Archer?
Rin. He still looks like he's going to say something, but Rin kisses him and that ends that idea pretty quickly.
Sometimes Archer complains about Shirou. Most of the time, really. Rin expected that. She would have expected even more of it had she actually thought about what she was doing and realized that Archer and Shirou were going to be seeing each other every day.
Archer wasn't very happy to find out that Rin and Shirou were involved, partly because it was Shirou and Archer wasn't very happy to find out that he was alive and partly because it was Rin and Archer wasn't very happy to find out that someone had looked at her and was still breathing.
Rin orders them to get along. She doesn't need to use a Command Seal for it - she isn't sure how that would work now and she finds that withholding sex works almost as well anyway.
She has more difficulty explaining to Shirou that she'll always love him for the stupidly sentimental things that he does, but occasionally she wants someone who knows what the hell he's doing. With Archer she doesn't even bother.
You're a little too old for fantasies like this, Rin, he says to her. I thought you outgrew your schoolgirl daydreams years ago.
Rin isn't fazed. Of course I did. If this were a teenage fantasy, I would be expecting you two to kiss at some point.
Archer drops the subject.
Sometimes… no. Rin is always glad that she did it.
It's good for them both. Shirou eventually learns to make passable tea and not to be such a wimp in and out of bed. Archer has his more sentimental moments and actually begins to start making friends again. (Slowly, and more like acquaintances than friends. Waver's new old Servant boyfriend doesn't count.)
She couldn't even begin to list the ways that it's good for her if she tried.
It's not perfect, of course. Even after making their peace with each other, the two bicker nonstop. And she could have passed on the time Issei thought she was cheating on Shirou and tried to strangle her.
But it's good. It's very good. And that's the best you can get, sometimes.