AN: I had several people asking about Shirou's shroud and why Taylor wasn't fighting to keep it. First, I didn't know it was anything other than window dressing to make him look cool. Which, given full body blue spandex wasn't a thing in ancient Ireland, I think it was a reasonable assumption to make. According to the wiki it is called 'Red Plain Mystic Code' a type of 'Holy Shroud'. It is not the Shroud of Martin. Consensus of the Fate fans I run to with questions is that it is essentially personal climate control with built in sunscreen. Alright their exact words were more like 'offers some protection from the elements' but basically same thing. Far as I'm concerned a knife proof jacket for every weather is about as good, if slightly less convenient. So yeah costume design from the previous update stands. Sorry to those this might upset.
As always please leave a review if you like the story.
Sprawled out on one of couches I chewed on the cap of my pen as I glared at Shirou's Aria, and the three lines I had so far of mine. I could trace Noble Phantasms now, but they fought against me. Or rather the Unlimited Blade Works fought me. I needed to either improve what I had or add more lines. The initial burst of inspiration had come easily enough, but refining and building on it was proving stupidly frustrating.
I had jotted down and then crossed out dozens of lines in the past hour. The second and third line sounded right to me but the first was… it wasn't bad. But it had the same feel as a kid trying on their parents' clothes or shoes to play dress up. I could wear it, but it didn't fit me properly. The lines past that point were even more frustrating. They described Shirou well, if in a stupidly dramatic manor, but they didn't fit me. No amount of tweaking them was going to make them fit either. No, I'd have to start from scratch if I wanted this to go any farther.
The problem with that plan though was I didn't really feel like I'd done enough to really work out any lines past that point. They were all about how he fought, grew, and was seen. But I hadn't fought anyone yet. I was lacking the combat experience that had truly shaped Shirou.
With a sigh I gave it up as a wash for now and flipped the binder shut before reaching for the Wards public relations manual. I had put of reading this one in favor of the 'combat manual'. After meeting with Glenn though I really felt the need to get a better grip on just how the Protectorate operated. And I had suspected this is where I needed to look for that information. It was a bit hit and miss in that regard. It overlapped with their definition of acceptable force but it also covered a bunch of other things. Public speaking, how to interact with the public, and our online presence to name some of the highlights.
The reading was pretty dry. You could tell that someone had dumbed the vocabulary down for impatient teens and children who just wouldn't have the attention span to read through blocks of legal jargon. But at the end of the day it was still a government written law enforcement manual that tried to outline proper behavior. It covered for those issues reasonably well by including dozens of anecdotes that outlined whatever concept they were trying to convey.
Still dry reading.
Though it really was solidifying my impression on the Protectorate's obsession with public relations. Which reinforced the wisdom of asking for that camera. I refused to be railroaded back into some cell just because the people in charge might get a bug up their ass about something.
Maybe a bit paranoid, but I wasn't about to let them lock me up again if I could help it. My teammates seemed ok so far, but I barely knew them, and they were Wards. They didn't get to make any of the big important calls. That was for the upper echelons of the Protectorate, and the PRT. Even if things seemed to be going my way right now, I wasn't about to forget the three months of issues that lead up to this point.
Turning the page, I forced myself to pay attention to another anecdote about how capes didn't get to be human. Because humans make mistakes, and heroes had to be perfect idols. Really it was an insane standard. If they actually wanted to market us all as paragons, they shouldn't work so hard to make capes stand out as individuals. No one ever remembered one cops name because he's just one more police officer and part of the force. A lot easier to sweep mistakes under the rug that way. Or if it really comes down to it, throw the one fuck up to the wolves because of course they weren't representative of the rest.
Twenty minutes later the door buzzer went off. I traced a domino mask directly onto my face without even bothering to move. It was probably just the rest of the team coming in from school, but why take a chance? Priorities taken care of I refocused on the story about the cape who got caught urinating in a back alley because they had been stuck on a long patrol and couldn't find a bathroom.
"Hey, Taylor!" Dani called as she literally cartwheeled through the still closed door. "Any leftovers?"
"Hey, Dani." I waved back with my free hand. "Still a few servings of the Lasagna in the fridge. Though I've also got chicken marinating for later if you want to wait. Should be enough for everyone. There was some fruit in there too if you want a snack."
She hummed agreeably and bounced off towards the kitchen as the door finally opened. Fred came through first, head already buried in a binder full of some kind of notes. Jason was flicking away at his phone and Lily trailed the two of them before the door slid shut. No longer worried about unexpected guests I dissolved the domino mask. All three offered a greeting, which I returned, but the boys headed off for their respective rooms while Lily plopped down in the chair closest to me. She quickly pulled out a textbook and some paper before starting to chip away at her homework. Dani, munching her way through a banana, joined us a minute later. She claimed a couch of her own before digging out what looked to be a mandatory reading book. Lord of the Flies, dark, but a good story.
For a while that's just how things went. All three of us working away at our own assignments in companionable silence.
It was nice. The quiet was comfortable.
An hour later I finally finished reading the manual. Stretching I got up and made for the kitchen which set Dani to giggling happily and made Lily look up.
"You're cooking again?" She asked as she set aside her work and followed me to the kitchen.
"Well, yeah. I figured no one would mind so long as I made enough for everyone. Is it a problem?" I asked glancing back over my shoulder.
"What? No! Not at all! Heck, if yesterday is anything to judge by then I'm thrilled. And I bet everyone else will be too." She reassured me quickly. "It's just that none of us can really cook, so we were always getting stuff delivered. Kind of surprised you know how to cook though?"
"Mmm, well… Mom died a while back. I had to learn a few recipes or just settle for peanut butter sandwiches, or Dad's cooking."
Lilly flinched. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
I blew out a breath as I pulled the Ziplock bags filled with marinating chicken out of the fridge and laid them out on the counter. "It's alright. You didn't know." I answered as I reached for a baking tray. We didn't have a grill here and for this kind of quantity it would be simpler to cook them in the oven then on a pan. "Anyway, I could make a few things before, but I'm leaning pretty heavily on Shirou's experience right now for everything from recipes to skill."
"Wait, so the guy who came with your powers… was some kind of chef?" The curious tilt of her head as she asked was adorable.
"Not professionally." I shrugged and sprayed the pan down. "More like a hobby. Or a guilty pleasure maybe. He's pretty steamed because a lot of his best recipes are Japanese and we just don't have the ingredients for any of them."
"He sounds like an interesting guy." Lily's tone screamed polite curiosity. It made me chuckle lightly as I laid out the chicken on the pan and set it in the oven.
"Shirou's… He's odd. Serious most of the time, especially about helping people, combat, and cooking. But he can be kind of apathetic about a lot of other things. His sense of humor is… Very sarcastic. He can make just about anything sound insulting by tone of voice alone."
Lily slid into a chair at the kitchen island and watched as I set about chopping vegetables. She eyed me thoughtfully as she worked through what I'd just told her. "Sounds like you care a lot about him." She said after a minute or two.
"He's my mentor." A simple statement that didn't really convey everything I wanted to say. "He's been with me for three months now. Constantly at first. And believe me that got awkward in a hurry."
"Like right now for example." Shirou's dry tone cut through my mind. "You've got dinner in hand. I'll check back in later." He said as his presence receded.
I guess listening to other people talk about you could be awkward. Even when it was positive.
"Oh, I'll bet." Lilly cringed.
I just nodded and put the vegetables in a pot of water and set them on the stove to boil. "Yeah very awkward, for both of us. Then one day on of the Doctor's wants to talk about us living together long term, and how would we compromise about sharing my body and… I still can't believe she could be so blunt about it, dating. She actually asked me what I would do if I wanted to 'read a certain kind of literature.'" I put on my best impression of Doctor Yamada for the relevant quote.
"Are you talking about Doctor Yamada?" Dani asked from almost literally right behind me.
I may have shrieked… just a little. "Where the hell did you come from?!"
"Through the wall." Dani answered brightly. "That sounded like something Doctor Yamada would say, and it was a pretty good impression of her voice too."
Looking to Lilly for help only got me commiserating smile.
Throwing my hands up in surrender I reached for another pot and the bag of rice. "Yes it was Doctor Yamada who asked me that." I admitted. I guess what she said about sometimes seeing various wards teams was true then. "Embarrassed the hell out of Shirou and I. So there we were, both wanting to just run like hell and nowhere to go… and Shirou says something ridiculous."
"Oh?" Lily prompted.
"Oh yeah." I nodded. "See the thing about what I do? I'm not just making up whatever weapon I want. I can modify some of them a bit, but at their base? Everything I can make is a weapon either Shirou or I have seen. And I haven't had much of a chance to add to the collection just yet. But I can do that with every simple weapon we've seen. Thousands of weapons. It's too much information for the human mind to reliably store. So it's all, it's sort of saved like a computer file into what Shirou calls; the Unlimited Blade Works."
Both girls are giving me their full attention and I swing into a seat across from Lilly.
"So there I am, red as a beat, stammering like mad. Then Shirou pulls the best 'fuck this shit I'm out' tone I've ever heard, and tells me he'll be in the Unlimited Blade Works. Next second? For the first time in more than a month I've got my head to myself... and I can't even enjoy the moment because the dick left me to deal with a psychiatrist who wanted to talk about my love life." I grumbled.
I had been ready to kick his ass when it happened. But it had been more than a month now and even I had to admit it was pretty funny, in hindsight.
Dani certainly agreed as she dissolved into giggles. Lily was more restrained but she was chuckling too.
"So how does that work?" Lily asked after she got her laughter under control. "You and Shirou sharing a body. Is he just going to duck out whenever you want some privacy?" She asked a bit nervously.
"Or whenever he decides he doesn't want to listen to whatever I'm talking about. He actually went into hiding a little after we started talking." I shrugged. "It's… well it's not fair to him, but like I said he can be pretty apathetic about a lot of things so he doesn't really care. And, well…"
I hesitated. I didn't need to tell them. It was weird, and hard to explain and just so easy for someone to take badly.
"If it's too personal you don't have to say anything." Lily got out in a rush. Dani pouted for a moment before she to nodded in reluctant agreement.
I blew out a breath and leaned back in my chair. "Sort of. It also sounds crazy." I admitted with a shrug. "I… really don't want to mess this up if you take it badly."
The girls shared a look. "Taylor, if you don't want to talk about something you don't have to." Dani smiled lightly.
"Yeah." Lily rushed to add. "You only just met us. We'll get it if you want to hold some stuff back."
"Yeah... I suppose. It's just that all those conversations with the shrinks are telling me to rip it off like a band aid, and not make more problems for future me."
"So?" Lily asked carefully.
"...Shirou won't stick around forever. Part of how I'm learning so fast is because whatever or however powers work is absorbing him… I'm absorbing him. And that's changing me, influencing my personality. So far, if anything, it's just made me more sarcastic and practical but…" I shrugged and looked away. "I just try to think of it as emulating someone I look up to."
"Oh, damn." Lily breathed out.
I was going to say something. Damned if I knew what, but I was going to say something. Only I got cut off by a hug from Dani before I could. A moment later Lily slid around the kitchen island and joined the hug. I sort of awkwardly patted whatever bit of back and shoulder my arms were closest to.
"I want to help, but I don't know how we could." The fact Lily sounded genuinely upset about that was… nice. I'd appreciated Doctor Yamada's stoic professionalism, but in a lot of ways the outpouring of directionless support felt so much better. Though the hug was starting to feel a smidge awkward. I was not used to getting hugged by near strangers.
"I'm ok, really, I am." I insisted. "I've known about it right from the beginning. I'm more upset that it means I'm going to lose Shirou one day." And that just made Dani hug me all the tighter. "I guess this means you two won't reject me for consuming the soul of my mentor?" I asked dryly.
That startled a laugh out of Lily. And made Dani lean back to look at me wide eyed. I treated her to my best deadpan and she chuckled a bit awkwardly. With a shake of my head I pulled loose and went to check on the food. The chicken and rice would need more time, but the vegetables seemed just about ready so I turned off that burner.
"Thank you." I finally spoke into the growing silence. "I do appreciate the sentiment, really, I do. But I've talked this all out a dozen times with at least three different psychiatrists. And even before I talked it out with them, I knew what was happening to me. I'm still me, just a little different from before I triggered. And between all the new situations, the sessions with the doctors, and Shirou's influence, it can be hard to tell what's a natural change and what's being pushed on me."
I shook my head. "I'm past worrying about it. It's happening. Can't stop it, can't change it... Just have to ride it out. And if I'm unhappy with who I end up being? I'll just have to work at being someone better." I spoke calmly. "Now I just worry about how other people will react. Got to admit, hugs were not what I was expecting." I grinned at the two of them.
The pair of them smiled back. A touch sad, and more than a little hesitant, but honest smiles all the same.
"So!" I clapped my hands together. "Something lighter to talk about, please. I've been over all my issues with a fine tooth comb in the past few months, and I don't really want to do it again right now. Tell me about yourselves?"
Dani smiled a bit more brightly. "We'll I grew up here in New York, Dad's an office drone, Mom's a nurse-" Apparently once you got Dani going getting her to stop became the hard part. The girl happily chattered away about anything and everything. It was endearing if a bit overwhelming. A few minutes later I found myself sharing a surreptitious grin with Lily when Dani stopped to take a breath.
I could get used to this. I really could. I wanted to be out there getting experience and helping people. But if this was how those nights would start, or what I would come back to when everything was said and done… Yeah, I could get used to this.
