What an awful dream…. She had gotten involved in the Holy Grail War, nearly been killed twice in one night, and Emiya had…

"Good morning, Master," a voice said from above her.

Ayaka's eyes shot open.

"I hope you do not mind me calling you that now that you have accepted our contract," Shielder said, smiling, but still slightly blurry to Ayaka.

"Shouldn't you be in spirit form?" Ayaka asked groggily, still not entirely sure if she was dreaming or not. Out of habit, she reached for where her glasses should have been, but she found her fingers passed over a matted floor, like one would find in a traditional Japanese house, not the western-styled one in which she lived. Then, when she found her glasses, the lenses were still cracked. This definitely wasn't a dream. Everything that had happened last night had been real, and she had woken up inside Emiya Shirou's residence.

"I will return to it shortly," Shielder replied. "I just wanted to check that you were well, Master."

"I'm not," Ayaka said brusquely. She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I get that like that without my glasses. You did save me from Lancer last night, and then you fought against Berserker too…"

At least she had the wherewithal to fix her glasses now. She pricked herself, and placed a single drop of blood containing her magical energy on each lens. It was absorbed into the glass and the cracks vanished.

"I believe Rin and Saber are waiting for you in the dining room, and Shirou should be awake shortly. I will take my leave now, but if you need me, I will answer."

Ayaka nodded, letting Shielder dematerialize. As her Servant had said, Rin was already there, speaking to someone. "It's not the best tea you had to work with, but I'm impressed nonetheless. You're almost as good at this sort of thing as my Archer."

"It was the least I could do to show you proper hospitality, Tohsaka-san," Saber replied. He was dressed in some of Shirou's spare clothes, and had an apron on. Turning, he saw Ayaka entering the room. "Good morning, Ayaka. I've prepared tea for you and Shirou too."

Ayaka took a seat and let Saber pour the tea for her. It was warm, and though Rin was right that the tea was nothing special in of itself, she could feel the care that had gone into preparing it.

Shirou appeared a few minutes later. "Huh? Tohsaka-san… Sajyou-san? What are you doing here?" Then his eyes flickered over to Saber. Oh… that's right… I…"

"You were incredibly stupid last night," Rin cut in. "Need I remind you that Sajyou-san here is an enemy of yours, just as I am now?"

"That's not much of an enemy then…. Really, I have to thank the two of you…"

"Argh! You just don't get it, Emiya-kun! You can't go on thinking of us as being friends if you want to survive in this Grail War! I couldn't attack you in good conscience last night when you didn't know what was going on, but from now you and Sajyou are fair game to me!" She put her tea down and stood up. "I see that I continue to stay here, I'll only be reinforcing that misconception of yours, so I'll show myself out now."

"Umm… Tohsaka?"

But she had already left.

"Are we really going to be enemies with Tohsaka-san?"

Ayaka shrugged, stirring her tea to avoid eye contact with him. "Maybe. She's far more a Magus than I ever could be. But she is kinder than she lets on."

There was an awkward silence. Ayaka finally broke it. "Why, Em-… no. May I call you Shirou?" He nodded. "Why did you save me from Berserker last night, Shirou?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Tohsaka-san had a point, Shirou. I'm supposed to be an enemy Master. Until last night, I was your enemy. I even tried to kill you."

"Sajyou-san!"

She hung her head in shame. "There's no denying what I did. I was aiming to kill, and if Saber hadn't stood between us, I would be a murderer now."

"You were frightened."

"You can't forgive me that easily for something like that. I'm the worst sort of person. And that still doesn't explain why you saved me. Did you know you would heal like that?"

"Well, no, I - "

She grimaced. "So you threw away your life on a moment's notice for someone as worthless as me, and it's only because of a miracle that you survived at all."

"Well yeah, I guess that sounds kind of dumb when you put it that way. But I don't regret it all, Sajyou-san. I saved you, didn't I? And you're not worthless either, Sajyou. If anything, I'd be the worthless one if I couldn't save you."

"That kind of thinking's not normal. As Tohsaka-san was trying to say, you should look out for yourself first, especially now that you're a Master, and it's a matter of life and death."

"I can tell that's not all you want to say to him," Saber said, suddenly snatching her glasses away from her.

"Hey! Give those back!" Her cheeks flushed red, and she furiously reached for her glasses, but Saber pulled them out of reach.

"It'll be best if you get this off your chest now," he told her. "I'll give them back when you're done."

"Oh, fine! How stupid do you get, Shirou? It's not just this, either! You never left me alone at school, and I never see you doing anything for yourself! You're always volunteering around school, to the point that you're just letting other people take advantage of you? What's wrong with you?"

"See, don't you feel better now, Ayaka?" Saber said, returning her glasses to her.

"You sounded like Tohsaka there," Shirou said, taken aback. Ayaka just glared at him, and then put back on her glasses. "But for as long as I remember, I've always been that way. I know you don't like my old man, and its hard to reconcile what you and Kotomine told me about Kiritsugu being the Magus Killer and all that with the old man I knew. But I do know that he failed to become a hero of justice. He said that it was a limited-time thing, and that as you become an adult, it becomes hard to call yourself one. As much as I don't want to admit it, maybe that's what my old man meant all along. But before he died, I promised him that I would become a hero of justice in his stead."

"A hero of justice?" Ayaka asked with faint incredulity. Even the term itself was childish.

"I don't know what you saw of the fire. My first memory is running away, thinking only of my own survival. There were others who were trying to escape, but they were dying all around me. After a while, I stopped running, and tried to help some of them. They died too. For some reason, only I had survived. So I tried to get out that inferno, so that it would mean something. But my strength failed me. I couldn't run any longer, and I could only wait for death. And then, Kiritisugu found me, carrying you on his shoulders. You were already unconscious. When he saved me, my old man seemed like some kind of superhero, so I wanted to save others like he had done, to be a hero of justice. I already should have died that day, so if I can save just one other person, I don't mind dying."

The story of the fire was clearly difficult for Shirou to retell, though he didn't break down like last time, and his eyes shone with a light that wasn't there before as he talked about being a hero. Ayaka still couldn't help but frown when he mentioned Kiritsugu, though she at least felt she understood Shirou and why he idolized the man a bit better. But that didn't make it right. And her heart clenched when Shirou said his first memory was of running away… running away from her, abandoning her at the first opportunity when the monstrous thing that had been spewed from the Grail was distracted. Then again, if he had stayed, he would have almost certainly been killed, so she knew that she really shouldn't blame him for that. Shirou hadn't been in his right mind at the time anyways, though he had still recognized her before fleeing. "Ay….ak…a" was the only coherent thing he could say when faced with the horrors inside the Civic Center.

"Sajyou-san?"

"It's nothing, Shirou."

"Anyways, I didn't realize that I was making you uncomfortable because of my old man. If I seemed to focus more on you than others at school, it was because you always looked so sad. You were the only other kid who survived the fire, but a part of you still hadn't been saved, so I wanted to relieve your burden however I could and see you smile."

Ayaka looked away from Shirou. If she didn't know now that he would throw his life away for any random stranger because of his own sense of worthlessness, that would have sounded almost like a love confession. She wasn't ready for that. She no longer hated him, but he still wasn't really her Shirou… that Shirou had died in the fire. It was just too confusing for her now.

She stood up. "Thank you for saving my life, but I've imposed on you and your Servant for too long, Shirou. I should be going now. As long as you leave me alone, we won't be enemies."

"Wait, Sajyou-san!

She paused.

"Illya and Berserker are still out there. You can't beat them on your own!"

"Nor can you, Shirou."

"Exactly! We should work together again!"

"I don't want you throwing your life away for me again, and I'm not going to throw my life away for people I don't know either. I have the feeling that I'd just end up having to protect you from yourself."

"Don't be like that, Sajyou. You heard Saber last night. He'll protect your life just as he would my own. Though I really do need your help. I've had the basics explained, but so much of this stuff is beyond me. I'd be lost without either you or Rin as an ally."

"We would benefit greatly from an alliance," Shielder spoke directly into Ayaka's mind. "And as I said last night, I would personally vouch for Saber's honor and valor. Reckless as Shirou may be, he seems to be cut from the same cloth, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better friend in this War."

"Fine," she relented.

Shirou stood, and held out his hand. After a moment, she reached out to shake it, sealing the pact between them.

XxX

Ayaka ended up staying for longer than she had originally planned. Shirou insisted on making breakfast since it was his responsibility as the master of the house. He barely seemed affected by the injuries he had suffered at all, and soon appetizing smells were wafting over from the kitchen. When he brought the meal over, there was steamed rice with natto and soy sauce, miso soup with carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and onions, garnished with parsley, and grilled fish for each of them. Much like Shirou's residence, the meal was very traditionally Japanese, and it was expertly prepared and arranged. Ayaka couldn't help but feel her stomach growling, and she felt her mouth watering. While the portion size of each dish was small, it was still a far larger meal than what she usually prepared for herself each morning, and when she put the food into her mouth….Mmmm! It was so good, she had to stop herself from greedily devouring it in front of Shirou, which would have been very un-ladylike.

"I think Ayaka likes your cooking, Master," Saber in that teasing tone of his.

Her cheeks went red. "That's not fair," she protested meekly. "You've almost finished yourself."

"You don't want to go into battle on an empty stomach," he said with a small shrug and a disarming smile that made it hard to be upset with him.

Ayaka thanked Shirou for the meal, but at last she had to get going. She hadn't been back to her house since the night before, and there was plenty of damage that needed to be fixed. She felt a bit anxious about heading back, the idea that there could be some Servant lying in wait for her crossing her mind. She was certain that if she asked him to, Shirou would accompany her with Saber. But he had already done too much for her, and if she couldn't take back her own home, what good would any of it be?

Fortunately, she had worried herself over nothing; the house was deserted when she arrived. The broken windows to the living room were clear from the outside, but Kotomine probably would have made arrangements for it to be covered up as just a bit of vandalism, keeping unwanted attention to a minimum. Of course, the damage was more significant inside, but at least the windows and Garden's roof could be fixed easily enough with the same spell she had used to repair her glasses earlier. Shielder materialized herself to help clean up as well.

"So who is Saber?" Ayaka asked Shielder as they worked.

"He was my liege in life," Shielder replied. "I still have the utmost respect for him, as a brave knight and a just king, though you are my Master now, Ayaka."

"He's King Arthur, isn't he?'

Shielder gave her an amused look. "If I may ask, how did you figure that out, Master?"

"He said he was my sister's Servant in the last war. Manaka loved hearing stories about the heroes of legend, especially King Arthur and his knights, so father would read them to us when he wasn't busy. You just said Saber was a king, and I can't think of any king my sister would have chosen to summon other than King Arthur."

"You are of course correct, Master. Though I recommend that you do not share that information with Shirou yet."

"Why shouldn't he know who is own Servant is?"

"As he lacks training as a Magus, Shirou's magical resistance is quite low. An enemy would easily be able to take that knowledge from his mind if they chose to do so, and in turn that would put our alliance at a disadvantage."

"But really…. Saber is King Arthur? Teasing me like that… it's not how I'd imagine him at all."

"You thought King Arthur would be more serious? He can be, particularly where his honor as a knight and king is on the line. But he couldn't live like that all the time. Do you know why he made his table round? It was to show that he viewed his knights as his equals, and he was one of us. He was like another father to me, but even he would have his own misadventures from time to time. His teasing just shows he's taken a liking to you."

"What?" Her heart fluttered. Why would King Arthur have such an interest in her? Seeking to change the subject, she said, "Wait… from what you were just saying there, you were a knight of the Round Table too…"

Shielder nodded. "Yes. My true name is Sir Galahad."

"You're joking, right?"

"I would never lie to you, Master."

"I would have heard from the stories my father read to my sister if one of the knights of the Round Table was a woman."

"Legends have a way of getting the details wrong," Shielder replied simply. "And Merlin did encourage that," she said with a small chuckle. "Before my birth, it was prophesied that Sir Lancelot's child would become the finest knight in the world. That I was a daughter instead of a son had no bearing on the prophecy. When I was finally knighted, I was treated like another of the guys." There was a wistful look on Shielder's face, but Ayaka decided not to press further, letting an awkward silence settle between them.

"What shall we do now, Master?" Shielder finally asked.

"I'll fight to defend myself, but I'm not going to pursue the other Masters. But I'll run into two of them tomorrow." Thoughts of Rin and Misaya flashed through her mind.

"You mean at school?"

"Yes. They should both know not to attack while there are other students there, so I should be safe until then, but…."

"You think one of them might attack anyways?"

"Rin shouldn't attack us until nightfall. I'll have to try to persuade her to reconsider before then. Maybe Berserker is enough of a common enemy… but somehow I doubt it after she made a point of declaring us her enemies this morning. I'm more worried about what Misaya might do, though. She should know the rules as well as Rin does, but she had it out for me even before the Holy Grail War began. If she knows that I'm a Master now…"

"Your concern is warranted, but please don't fear, Master. I shall accompany you to school in spirit form."

"Then Misaya will know that I'm a Master for sure…. But I wouldn't want to face her now without you either."

"If Misaya is the likeliest threat, does Shirou know about her?"

"No… he doesn't. He knows Rin and I are Magi, but I don't think either of us mentioned Misaya to him."

"Then you should share that information with your ally. If you time it well, you could even get a good dinner out of it."

"Are you going to be teasing me too now?"

"While I would never condone gluttony, Master, Saber was right about the need to eat well before a battle, and judging from how you dug into breakfast, you haven't been eating particularly well lately."

"I'm a glutton now?" Ayaka asked, reaching for her glasses but stopping her hand short. "How was I supposed to eat anything last night when I was scared for my life?"

"I meant no offense, Master. But you shouldn't skip meals like that, especially in the midst of the Holy Grail War. If going over to Shirou's place is what gets you to eat, then that's what you should do. It did look delicious though, and I wish I could have joined you and Saber to partake in it."

She couldn't deny that it was far better than anything she could have prepared for herself. She only used ready-made ingredients, while Shirou's cooking had more of a homemade flair, and sometimes she would just sit down in front of the TV at night with processed food that simply needed to be warmed up with a microwave.

"Fine."

XxX

"S-senpai? What is Sajyou-san doing here?"

Matou Sakura stood in the doorway in front of Ayaka, a bewildered expression on her face. She clearly sounded hurt.

"You're… not going out with her… are you, Senpai?"

"Um, no you see…"

If Ayaka was more like Rin, she could have covered for Shirou and crafted a plausible lie on the spot, using her natural charm to her advantage so that everyone would be forced to believe her. But Ayaka lacked the self-confidence to pull off such a deception, and instead froze up on the spot.

"Sajyou-san and I are working on a school project together, so she might be dropping by in the evenings for a while."

"Shirou! You idiot!" There was no way that Sakura would believe such a lie.

"Really? That's the first I've heard of it, Shirou," the voice of Fujimura Taiga, better known throughout the school as 'Tiger', though one didn't call her that unless one wanted to see the Tiger erupt like Mount Fuji, and Ayaka wasn't so daring.

Ayaka was on better terms with Fujimura-sensei than most of her other teachers. Not only was Fujimura-sensei her homeroom teacher, but she taught English as well, the only subject Ayaka was able to distinguish herself in. Fujimura-sensei even called Ayaka "one of my best students", though Ayaka didn't really think her English ability counted for much, considering that she was half-foreign, and had already learned the basics of the language from her mother at a young age. If anything, it was practically cheating.

"What are you waiting for, Ayaka-chan? Come on in," Fujimura-sensei beckoned.

Ayaka did as she was told. Shirou, Sakura, and Fujimura-sensei were gathered around the table. Saber was with them at well, but Fujimura-sensei did not seem to recognize that she was in the presence of a Heroic Spirit.

"So which teacher thought to pair you two together?" Fujimura-sensei asked. "Or did you two start shacking up without me noticing?" The Tiger bared her claws. "As your teacher and Shirou's guardian, I can't condone such irresponsible behavior."

"Um…. Kuzuki-sensei, for World History…"

Ayaka glared at Shirou. Stupid! Kuzuki hadn't assigned any such project to their class. All Fujimura-sensei had to do was speak to her fellow teacher tomorrow, and Shirou's story would be blown. But Ayaka knew she had to go along with it for now, and pray for the best. Why did Shirou have to pick Kuzuki's class anyways? Kuzuki-sensei was stern, and could even be a bit scary at times.

"Well, I suppose that I have Saber-san here to make sure you focus on studying, and not anything you shouldn't be be doing," Fujimura-sensei said. "So you were saying that you knew Kiritsugu?" She asked Saber, starting to sound excited. "I've long thought Shirou needed a positive male role model after Kiritsugu died. Will you be staying for a while?"

Saber nodded. "I did. And yes, I think I'll be here for about a week or two."

Ayaka had to keep herself from doing a facepalm. Not only did Shirou concoct a lie that wouldn't at all stand up to scrutiny, but he had introduced Arthur as Saber. Not that Shirou knew Saber's true name yet, but what if Taiga happened to mention 'Saber-san' at school, where Misaya might hear? No, that wasn't what she had to be concerned about; seated right at this table was Matou Sakura. The Grail always chose a Master each from the Tohsaka, Einzbern, and Matou famiies. The Matou were said to be a dying bloodline, but she couldn't deny the possibility that Sakura could be an enemy Master herself, in which case Shirou had just as good as told her that he was involved in the Holy Grail War. In that light, it was no wonder that Sakura seemed so on edge.

And of course, her teacher was doing a poor job of not acting like a lovestruck teenager in Saber's presence. Fujimura-sensei was never the most mature individual, but the look of infatuation was plain in her eyes. If, hypothetically speaking, Saber had been a woman (if a legendary figure like Galahad could really be female, why not another?), Fujimura-sensei would have never stood for it, but here she was welcoming him with open arms. She even bought Saber's lie that he had lost his luggage at the airport, so Shirou was letting him borrow some clothes, without question.

Eventually, everyone settled down into eating their dinner. The quantity of food seemed enormous, so there was plenty for Ayaka as well. There was seasoned beef, huge bowls of salad with sashimi, tomatoes, plenty of onions, and a lemon slice on top, fried shrimp, and platters of pork meatballs, covered in a savory sauce, served with noodles. Fujimura-sensei seemed to scarf it all down almost as quickly as Saber did, who complimented Sakura's efforts on helping Shirou prepare the meal. This earned a blush from her, though she still seemed uneasy around the unexpected company.

Fujimura-sensei and Sakura soon left, leaving Shirou and Ayaka to " study under Saber-san's watchful eyes".

"So, what brought you over, Sajyou-san?" Shirou asked.

"Firstly, you're a terrible liar. But I thought you should know that Tohsaka-san and I aren't the only other Magi at school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The Reiroukan are a Magus family from Tokyo, and Misaya certainly transferred here with the intention of being a Master. And the Matou are one of the Founding Families of the Holy Grail Wars. Sakura could just as easily be a Master herself."

"Is there anyone at our school who isn't secretly a Magus? This is getting to be a bit much. I can't see Sakura getting involved in something like this either. She's been coming over nearly every day for almost a year, and she never showed any hint of being a Magus herself!"

"Just as you didn't show any hints of being a Magus to Tohsaka."

"Well… I suppose that's true…. But Sakura's a gentle girl. She wouldn't have any interest in fighting in these Grail Wars."

"I didn't have any interest in fighting in these Grail Wars either," Ayaka pressed. "She could still have been chosen as a Master. She probably has been, unless you think Shinji is a more likely candidate."

"I've known Shinji even longer than I've known Sakura. He can't be a Magus. Sure, he's been a bit off lately, but he was my friend since middle school."

"Just be careful, Shirou."

"I will. Thanks for the heads-up, Sajyou-san."

Author's Note:

It wouldn't be Fate/Stay Night without gratuitous descriptions of food. Nor would it be a proper Fate/Stay Night story without at least one gender-swapped Heroic Spirit.

While thus far we have followed the stations of Fate/Stay Night's canon fairly closely, the Holy Grail War will open up starting in the next chapter, and Fate/Prototype will begin to play an increasing role in those events that are paralleled. Ultimately, this story is not based on any of Fate/Stay Night's routes in particular, nor solely Fate/Prototype's draft, but a combination of all of them. I have a general idea of the direction I want the plot to unfold in, and I look forward to seeing it for myself as I write it and sharing it with you.