Fate/Eternal Night

Ch. 1: Sibling Rivalry

She's clueless. Am I just not showing it right? Is she ignoring the signs? Shirou Emiya kept running these thoughts through his mind, scratching his head, further messing up his spiky red hair, as he walked downstairs to the shoe lockers.

Club activities ended minutes ago, and it was usual routine for him to meet Sakura Matou there. They would leave school together and stay at his house for hours on end, until it was time to take her home. Shirou couldn't help his feelings of getting more romantically attached to her.

Shirou's eagerness was making his walking pace faster than usual. Issei Ryudou and Rin Tohsaka, Shirou's two best friends, noticed how Shirou was acting and proceeded to follow him out of the student council room. Shirou told them he was going to confess his feelings to Sakura soon, and they figured the day had come.

Issei and Rin were members of the student council, president and treasurer respectively, and Sakura was a member of the archery club. Shirou wasn't in a club, but he often traveled the school, repairing anything broken. He fixed the student council room heater at Issei's request. It was at that time Issei and Rin noticed the new persona Shirou had on him. It was Rin's idea to tail Shirou, despite Issei's request to respect their privacy. The two of them waited around the corner of the stair case, keeping an eye on Shirou pacing back and forth.

"Why'd you follow me if you didn't want to come?" Rin whispered to Issei.

"Because I had to make sure you didn't interrupt them," Issei responded with a rather agitated attitude.

"Give me more credit."

"No, you-"

The two of them crawled back a bit further when Sakura came into sight. When Sakura saw Shirou, she gave him the same pleasant smile she always did.

"Good afternoon, Senpai," Sakura greeted him.

"Hi, Sakura," Shirou said stiffly.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked him as his abnormal attitude stood out.

Rin giggled a bit as she knew Shirou was always bad at hiding his feelings. Issei put his hand over her mouth to stop her from breaking out in laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Never better," Shirou quickly responded.

"That's good. You seem a bit off." Sakura started to move towards her shoe locker until Shirou suddenly burst it out.

"Will you go out with me?" Shirou said it so suddenly, but he figured it was his only option. He tried looking for signs of mutual responses from her since a while after they started seeing each other regularly. However, he never saw any. She'd either decline events with just the two of them or invite other people. But he needed his answer now.

Sakura was quiet. Her faced looked more worried than embarrassed, and this concerned Shirou.

"I'm sorry!" shouted Sakura as she attempted to rush out the door before even fully changing shoes.

Shirou caught her by the arm.

Shirou, don't do it. Rin was now serious and began thinking of the worse possible outcome.

With Shirou's hand wrapped around Sakura's arm, he scrunched up her sleeve just enough to see the new beat marks on her arm. Sakura slapped him for not listening and controlling himself. Before she could do anything more, Shirou bolted to the archery club room outside. He knew Shinji, Sakura's brother, was still there. He'd always be there flirting with the girls.

Shinji didn't see what was coming as he felt a force yank the back of his collar and throw him to the ground. The other club members gasped as Shirou pounded at Shinji's face and arms, trying block him.

"I'm fucking sick of everything with you, Shinji!" Shirou roared at him. Shirou was aware of Shinji's physical abuse towards his sister. It was the whole reason Sakura stayed at Shirou's home for the majority of the day. But he couldn't protect her all the time. She'd have to return home every night to her brother, and whoever else that lived at the house and permitted this. Shirou wanted no more of it, and he felt like he was at his brink.

"Senpai, please stop!" Sakura cried from Shirou.

Shirou struggled to land another punch or not. He interpreted both outcomes as ones to help her. He ended up lowering his arms, and turned to Sakura with tears running down his face. He stood up and motioned towards Sakura. She took a step back away from him, however.

"I'm going home today," Sakura said to him as she walked out the room. Sakura was confronted at the shoe locker by Rin this time. Issei had already left to avoid any drama he didn't belong in.

"If you go home, what will Shinji do to you?" Rin asked the obvious.

"I get hurt either way," Sakura replied.

"Then let Shirou protect you."

"Like you care!"

"I do-"

"Then why haven't you ever proved it!? What has our families being apart done to stop you from being my friend!? You don't care about me, the Tohsaka family never will!"

Rin didn't answer Sakura, and left the school first. Rin was held back by fear to ever be Sakura's friend. They were no longer sisters after Rin's father sold Sakura to the Matou family. Rin didn't know what she was afraid of, it was just a wall that she didn't want to break. It might have been for the best, it might not. Sakura left a few minutes after Rin did.

Shirou stood in the middle of the rest of the archery club members. "Are you going to report me?" he asked Shinji and the other club members.

"I'll do no such thing, Emiya," Shinji replied.

Shirou and everyone else was stunned by Shinji's answer.

"We're leaving it at that," Shinji said while wiping his face with a towel as he proceeded to leave school for the day. "I want you here, come your fated day," Shinji said to himself, referring to Shirou, with a wide grin on his face.