Chapter 11! The tension is everywhere chapter. XD
Archer could not believe what he had done.
His original plan had been to just transfer a little bit of prana into Hikaru in order to give her magic circuits a shock and hopefully pull her out of madness. However, he had lost control of himself while he had been transferring the prana. He had kissed her out of longing for the girl that Hikaru mirrored.
His eyes flickered over to his Master. She was walking a couple steps ahead of him with her hands behind her back. She had refused to look him in the eye and not a word had left her mouth after she had said she was going to go home. What did she think about what had happened? She had seemed shocked after she had recovered her wits but that was all he was able to gather. She had been carefully guarding her emotions since then.
Reaching her house, she unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Archer followed in after her and locked the door behind him before he turned to look at his Master. She was waiting in the hallway, her eyes still downcast. Her hands were behind her back and her back was against the wall. "That…k…k…thing you did…" Her voice was soft like she didn't want anyone else to overhear them. "It was just for getting rid of Caster's Noble Phantasm right?"
"Yes, of course," said Archer quickly. "I needed to give you some of my prana to help you break free from the Nameless Forest. That was the quickest way to transfer the little bit you needed." He hoped she would buy it. It was the truth although at the same time it wasn't the full truth.
Hikaru bit her lip. "Of course. Of course. That was the reason why you did it." Her voice was oddly leveled. "I understand. It makes perfect sense. You were just looking out and taking care of your Master."
Archer winced. There was something about the way she was speaking that seemed very…off. Like she was expecting more from him. Like what? His eyes widen as he had a thought. "Hang on. That wasn't your first kiss right?"
Her face flushed and she put a hand to her mouth. "Uh…technically no…"
Archer sighed in relief. "Well that's good. At least your first kiss wasn't wasted on a guy like me for something like this."
"Idiot," she whispered. She stepped away from the wall but still would not look him in the eye. "I'm going up to my room. Taiga probably sent me some work to do so I'm going to see if I can get a head start on that."
Hang on. What was going on here? Why did she call him an idiot? Why did she seem more upset now? "Master…" Hikaru didn't wait to listen to what he was going to say. She was already climbing the stairs to her room. He clenched his hands into fists and struggled to push down the urge to punch a wall. Why did it seem like everything was going wrong now?
"She is not her," he said like it was a magic spell that would dispel all of the inner turmoil he was feeling. "She is not. She is just a girl that looks like her. She can't run for long periods of time and doesn't listen to warnings and just attracts trouble wherever she goes." He sighed. However she did care for people and always tried her best and learned from the mistakes she made. "Would you have been like her if you had memories?"
Maybe. That was possible wasn't it? However he needed to stay away. Even if they would be the same, he could not give in to his feelings. This Hikaru needed a better life, no she deserved a better life after this was over. He couldn't be selfish and give in to his feelings for her. He knew that one day they would be separated. He had given in once and Hikaru had ended up dying in the waters of the Moon Cell and all he could do was sit there and watch it happen.
Not again. He would not allow it to happen again. He will protect her this time and get her through the War, no matter what happened to him. And he would not allow himself to give in. That was something he vowed to himself.
Hikaru collapsed on her bed and buried her face into her pillow. She resisted the urge to scream since Archer might think she was getting attacked or something. That guy! He was such an idiot! Why did he say it like that!? Couldn't he have put it in a better way? She lifted her head and frowned. Why was it bugging her so much about what he said?
She gently touched her lips. It was surprising when she had returned to her senses to see and feel that but she couldn't say she hated it. It was way different from what she felt when that blonde perverted guy kissed her. She didn't…mind that Archer had kissed her.
"GAH!" Hikaru buried her face into her pillow again. What did that mean!? Wait. Didn't it mean that she l…l…liked him!? "No way. No way. No way." She lifted her head but rested her chin on the pillow as she thought it over. How was this even possible? She met him only six days ago. Was that long enough to like someone? However when he had appeared, she felt like she had known him for a long time. She trusted him with her life on their first meeting. Why? That was weird too.
"Why is this happening to me?" She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. She prayed for an answer to be seen up there but nothing. She put her hands over her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before she sat up. Even though it was embarrassing, at the same time it was invigorating. She finally understood why she felt weird around him. She actually liked her Servant!
She might have figured out her feelings but what about Archer? She smiled sadly to herself. No way. He didn't like her. He was always yelling at her, flicking her forehead and just overall mean to her.
But…there was that night where he had comforted her when she had her mental breakdown. Even thinking farther back, he had been kind to her at their first meeting. "He knew my name…" she realized. Sure she had questioned it back then but she never brought it up again. He never answered it either. she realized. How did that fit into the jigsaw puzzle?
"ARGH!" She grabbed her pillow and put it on her head. Why did everything about her Servant just confuse her? Why did he need to be so secretive about everything?
Not able to take it anymore, Hikaru sat up. She gently touched her lips and tightened the hand into a fist. Archer probably meant nothing by it but she knew she could see it in no other way. Her memory was foggy on how prana transfer worked but it couldn't involve such an….intense kiss right? Maybe that was just the kind of kisser Archer was?
Wait a minute.
"Why am I thinking that!?" she fell back on her bed and kicked her legs wildly in an attempt to remove the image of Archer kissing her in her mind. Her eyes went to the ceiling again. She wished Rin was around to offer advice on the subject. She seemed like the type of girl who knew how the mind of boys worked. Her throat constricted as she thought of her friend and she yanked her phone out of her pocket and called. Nothing.
"Rin will be okay," she whispered like a mantra before she sat up again and smiled to herself. If Rin was here now she would have yelled at Hikaru for being so stupid and getting hung up over this. Also she couldn't just sit in her room forever. There was a War going on out there. She could not let these kind of emotions get in the way. Even if a part of her wanted them to.
"Stop that!" She lightly slapped herself. Archer did not like her in that way at all so what was the point of thinking about it?
She sucked in and released a deep breath before she got off her bed and opened her bedroom door. She crept down the stairs and peeked into the kitchen. Nope. He wasn't in there. She headed into the living room and spotted Archer sitting on the couch. He didn't seem to know she was there. He was leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees. His expression was one Hikaru had seen before. The incredibly sad look that he never had on when he thought she was looking.
She bit her lip and then took another deep breath before walking into the room. She stood in front of him with her hands behind her back. It took Archer a couple of seconds to realize she was standing there. As soon as her Servant looked up, he was back to his usually grumpy self.
"Did you finish whatever homework Taiga sent to you Master?"
Oh yeah. She had used that excuse right? "Uh…not really…I was doing a bit of thinking." She scratched the back of her head. This was so much harder to do in person. "And umm…I'm sorry how I reacted. I mean, I can understand that all you wanted to do was to snap me out of the Nameless Forest spell." She resisted the urge to touch her lips as she thought about it. "I over-reacted. I…I don't have memories involving prana transferring so I didn't know it could be done like that. I'm thinking like a non-magus about…that kind of thing so…" She trailed off and glanced over at Archer to gauge his reaction. She thought she saw a flash of hurt cross his face but that couldn't be right. She was agreeing with what he had said before!
"Well, I'm glad you understand." Archer got to his feet and turned away from her. "I'm going to see if we have enough food in the house to make you dinner."
Hikaru winced. What? He seemed so cold now. Why? What happened? She had agreed with him! "Hang on!" She whirled around to walk after him but when she turned, her left foot caught on her right and she went pitching forward. "AHHH!"
Before her face could meet head-first with the carpet, Archer seemed to appear out of nowhere and he broke Hikaru's fall with his body. "Only you could trip over your own feet." He held her shoulders and waited for her to steady herself before letting go.
"Not my fault," she murmured, pushing her long brown hair out of the way. Ugh. Running her fingers through it, it was obvious that the day with Caster had made it very messy and tangled.
"Now I'm going to check the kitchen. I'm hoping you won't get into trouble for the few seconds I'm gone."
"Nothing will happen," she grumbled as Archer walked into the kitchen. Why did it seem like he was acting normal now? Maybe her trouble-magnet did have its uses after all. She headed for the couch and grabbed the hair brush that sat on the small side table.
She had thrown her hair over her shoulder and was able to get a few strokes in before Archer returned. "There's a few leftovers that I could use but I think it is best for me to go out and grab some ingredients…" He trailed off and his fingers twitched.
"Oh okay. I'll get you my wallet then," she said. She threw her hair over her shoulder. Guess she was going to brush it out later.
"Hang on." Archer walked over and took the brush out of her hand before sitting down on the couch behind her.
Hikaru looked back at him in confusion. "What?"
Archer's face seemed to take a slight red tint. "Umm…I could go later, there's still plenty of time. So…do you mind…if I…"
Why did he seem so flustered all of a sudden? And why did he take the brush from her? It wasn't like she was going to stab herself in the eye with it or something.
"I…I can brush your hair for you," he blurted out.
"Huh?" Hikaru could feel her face turning red so she turned away so he couldn't see it. "Uh, yeah. Sure." What was going on here? He was just being nice. That's it. That was all there was to it.
"If this makes you nervous…"
"No, no. It's fine," she said quickly. This situation just seemed ten times worse now that she realized that she had feelings for her Servant.
"And I'm already breaking my vow," she heard Archer murmur from behind her before he began brushing.
What in the world was he doing?
He carefully pulled apart the knotted strands in her hair before going over it with the brush. When he had seen her with the hair brush in hand he thought of all the times, in the Moon Cell after a run through the Arena, Hikaru had brushed out her hair. He could still picture her complaining about how tangled and messy it got. One day he had just taken the brush and brushed her hair out for her. Since then it had been like a ritual they did when they returned to the room after a long day in the Arena.
Why was he doing it again!? This girl was not her. Heck, he had vowed to himself to keep her at a safe distance. However here he was, doing this. He noticed that even though they were the "same" person her hair seemed different. Unlike Moon Cell Hikaru, Hikaru's hair was coarser and it seemed to be a little bit lighter too. Maybe it was just the fact that they were in the real world and not the Moon Cell that made it feel that way. Or it could just be the fact that this Hikaru did not take care of her hair as well.
"You need to use better conditioner Master." He paused at a very stubborn knot and tried to take it apart with his fingers. He didn't want to use the brush and accidently rip her hair out.
"Well I'm sorry if my hair isn't up to your standards," she huffed.
She never changed, did she? He continued to work out the knot. He had finally gotten the strands separated and he began brushing her hair again.
"You've done this before…haven't you?" Hikaru asked quietly.
Archer hesitated a moment. "Yes."
"For the woman you loved right? She brushed her hair like this."
Archer stopped in mid-brush. He couldn't see his Master's face from where he was so he had no idea how she was implying that. There was no way she could be jealous right? Naw. That was impossible. He was just going under the assumption that she liked him like the other Hikaru did. She was probably just curious. Nosy was more like it. "Yes."
"Oh."
What was with the tension again? It had seemed to disperse after she had almost fallen on her face before but it was back again at full force. Why? He turned his attention back to her hair but it didn't relax him like before. He sighed and finished brushing the section before holding out the brush for her to take. "Here. I can tell you are feeling awkward by me doing this."
Hikaru looked at him in surprise and shook her head. "Uh no. It's fine. Really. You can umm keep going." She turned away from him and quickly added. "So how do you think we should defeat Caster? That Nameless Forest was really powerful."
Did she give them a topic to make it less awkward? He picked up the next section of hair and began working on it. "The Nameless Forest can be defeated by just saying your name. Just write your name on your hand. That will work. As for Caster, if I can fight her one on one I should be able to win. Caster is not good at attacking physically." Unless she summons the Jabberwocky, he added silently.
"Guess we are just going to need to goad her into fighting us somehow."
This was so different from when Moon Cell Hikaru had to face Alice. She had been so hesitant about the whole thing. However that might be from the one difference between the Moon Cell and here. Here, the Master did not have to die. He would not have to see this Hikaru break down after killing a little girl and for that he was grateful.
The silence that filled the air was more comfortable now. Once the final stroke was done, Archer put down the brush and the tranquility around them broke like a magic spell. "Well, I need to go get stuff for dinner now. Your wallet?"
Hikaru stiffly got off the couch. "Yeah. I'll go get it for you." She headed out of the living room but when she reached the doorway she turned back. "If…" She looked down and pushed her pointer fingers against each other. "If, one day, I made you something…would you eat it?"
He stared at his Master. She was fidgeting and her eyes kept sneaking glances at him and then at the floor. "Yeah," he relented. "I would eat it."
She grinned. "Great. I'll go get my wallet now."
Once she was gone, Archer leaned back on the couch and rested his head on the back of it. This was going to be so much harder than he thought it would be.