Short notice: before reading this chapter, reading the side-story is encouraged. It's mostly mindless fluff, anyhow.
Shortcrust Marmalade Pie
The cafe next to Hereford Square was home to some local oddities and strange things, as well as to the best cheesecake in the city, if one were to ask the locals.
First being owned by a nice half-Italian couple, and later passed on to her daughter, the cafe was since then thriving on tourism that encompassed not only students from the surrounding universities or more-or-less prominent personalities, but many local, normal, day-to-day people.
Many of these people, like John himself, came for the exquisite cuisine that was offered at a reasonable price - truly, ever since the rumors started that the son of the world-renown Jouichirou worked there, albeit under an alias, the guests and income almost doubled - but there was simply something about the cafe that seemed to draw the visitors and guests into another world once entered.
A world full of swords and magic and fantasy - but nonetheless a world which felt alive. It was like setting foot into a tavern in some of those shows or games, with a load of beautiful paraphernalia ranging from rusted swords to painted landscapes across two floors, with chivalric waiters ready to take their command.
That was the first impression tourists from outside got, at least.
The locals and regulars of the cafe could attest to that, but it was not necessarily the full truth - well known were the odd times when the manager would usher everyone out because of someone who entered, and while it had been strange at first for everyone, by now those that knew the routine actively participated in shooing out confused first-timers or tourists. There was no complaining, as everyone knew that trying to do so would result in either the owner or the co-owner coming, and that was not something many could withstand for a prolonged time.
Many thought the cafe was overstaffed at the beginning, but by now the guests seemed to have grown to accommodate the many workers - not surprising, as far as John was concerned, since the locale was growing amongst its competitors, and coming out on top.
Of course, if one were to look better, then almost every other day someone would walk to the counter, whisper conspiratorially to whoever was at the register, and then the strange guest would either be allowed into the kitchens or Mrs. Whittington would come out to greet him.
Whispers floated around after the first few times, that the owner, Mrs. Dolce, was a high ranking person in the mafia, and that all of these strange guests were also part of it. The theory was supported by the fact that there seemed to be some kind of trigger phrase, something with sabers and wizards and cups, but if so, none of the regulars has figured it out.
John simply thought that they had many friends.
It was also his personal opinion that the staff worked as one giant family unit, and that there were some people from outside - a detective and a police officer, for one - who were part of the family.
They carried themselves with pride and chivalry, and every single one of them had as sharp a mind as steel, and the cafe didn't tolerate misbehavior of any sort from any sort of person.
They seemed old, sometimes, and would help customers to the best of their abilities if they were in plight - the story of the deaf girl and her lost mother being one example of many.
Whispers seemed to come and go with every day, but despite all of the theories that popped up, it could be said nonetheless that the cafe held itself up to its name - and the workers to the knights.
The publication of the book by Mrs. Whittington added another layer of mystery to many, as the book sounded too personal to be a mere fiction.
Once again, as far as John was concerned, this was utter bloody bullshit. The book was interesting, of course, but people were reading too much into it. He had met Mrs. Whittington personally, after all, and she was a bright and brilliant young woman, and wasn't plagued whatsoever by soul-crushing guilt, like King Arthur in the book.
Though, he had to admit, they really were as terrifying as knights, now that he thought about.
"…closed? For how long?"
"I can't believe-"
"-stupid, foolish-"
"-why even would they?!"
A crowd had gathered around him - better to say, he was part of a crowd that had gathered around the entrance of the cafe, despite the late night time. Officer Bashir and Detective Cox were trying to coax the people behind an imaginary line, the detective's children helping out as well, while four people were sitting ducks in the middle of the road, next to a broken window.
They looked terrified out of their stupid, simple minds.
…though, if John were to admit, seeing Mrs. Whittington brandish one of the rusted swords in her hands as if she knew how to use it (it being sheathed notwithstanding), as well as the waiter who went by the alias of Gawain one as well was kind of terrifying. Even 'Lancelot' holding a simple mop somehow seemed like the deadliest fighter ever.
The crowd around him let out a murmur as the manager addressed everyone. "Due to these idiots here-" the four burglars turned white, "- the cafe will have to close down, until we repaired everything. I estimate four weeks and - now, stop groaning like that! One of those weeks will cover the chaos these idiots did, the others some technical upgrades."
John nodded in understanding, as did many others; mostly the students that had gathered were none too pleased, but a look from the detective silenced even them.
0:0:0:0
Really, it had been an interesting line of events that led him to stand here, he mused, as the burglars all but ran into the police car.
He was nodding at Mrs. Whittington, a silent show of respect, who nodded back with a small smile, sword slacking in her grip so naturally that John wouldn't be surprised if she knew how to use it for real.
His wife had called him somewhere around eleven, stating that her ladyfriend had called her, sounding frantic. She'd already called the police, she'd said, and there was a break-in at the Café, four people.
By the time John had truly registered what she'd implied and promised to take a detour from work to look, the news had spread like wildfire amongst the local regulars, and fifteen minutes later he arrived as one of the first to the scene, expecting destruction, but finding four poor idiots too terrified to walk away.
Well, at least his wife could calm down.
0:0:0:0
Artoria watched the real-estate agent walk away, only relaxing once no more onlookers were around.
"I have to say, that was certainly… something."
Henry glanced at her.
She nodded at him, barely a tilt of her head. "Something."
Being startled awake by a call from their very own Edward Hyde had been somewhat surprising - she was still resting after her cold, so it had taken her a minute to even register what the twin had said.
Still, he'd said that he'd gotten a notification from one of the street urchins that there was something shady happening at the cafe, and Artoria had rushed out of the apartment, Lancelot and Guinevere in tow. She knew that Edward had been visiting Mordred with Henry (and as a side note, Artoria could not believe how blind her child was, really), so Gawain was already on his way.
The burglars didn't know what hit them.
The terrified looks after their impromptu-burglary failed was comical. They had been trying to take down the weaponry (thankfully careful), only to be surprised by Artoria and Lancelot, who arrived first.
She shook her head at the evening, inspecting the sword in her hand. "Unbelievable…"
The poor weapons.
Lancelot leaned on his mop. "I reckon they won't try it ever again, at least."
"True."
Truffles
The fact that the burglars decided to ransack the cafe right at the beginning of the Easter vacation was something Kay marveled at, shaking his head.
"Such idiots…"
It would be closed for the duration of those two weeks, and two more after, which left everyone who was not named Kay, Agravain or Palomedes - due to finances and work outside - with ten extra days of vacation, after the initial legal paperwork had been finished.
Bors and Percival's families decided to go to New York and Southern Italy, respectively, and Tristan had some kind of archery-meeting-camp-whatever in the second week. Most of the former knights had something or the other to do, thankfully, and if he were to be honest, the attempted burglary gave them a good excuse to finally replace the freezer.
He glanced over to his not-sister.
Artoria looked over at her phone, contemplating. She really didn't want to bother Iri, but…
0:0:0:0
The German former homunculus blinked as her phone went off, with that particular ringtone that was associated with a certain former King.
"Entschuldigen Sie mich bitte kurz, Frau Weber."
Turning away from the two guests, she focused on it. "Yes? Saber?"
And as she heard about thieves and windows and closed cafes, Iri blinked. "Oh my - of course you can come earlier, there's still free rooms available." She scanned through the register. "Mordred's meeting is still in the same week, I can't shuffle it around, considering Shakespeare planned it months in advance, but some arrived earlier than those four days, so she has plenty of catching-up to look forward to."
After a minute, Irisviel smiled. "Yes! I can do that! This'll be like a big family meetup!"
0:0:0:0
"You know, I'm surprised Irisviel let us book in two days earlier than previously planned." Shirou glanced over at Saber, who nodded, all of them patiently waiting until Jeanne loaded in her last luggage into Gawain's combo. "And let us take one more person with us."
The former saint smiled at them. "It is in good luck that I was able to get three more days of vacation as well." A chuckle followed it. "Medusa is a saint."
The others joined in.
She sat down next to Mordred, smiling slightly crookedly. "I still have no idea how to drive there."
Gawain grinned as he closed the boot and circled around the car, giving Lancelot a thumbs-up. "You live nearer to the border than we do!"
Galahad, Mordred, Rin, and new-tagalong Sakura also walked to their respective cars - the former siblings with Lancelot and Guinevere, the technically-sorta-not-really siblings to Gawain's.
Mordred closed the door. "So!"
All attention was on her.
"Looking forward much, Mordred?" Artoria smirked at the splutter. It was cute, how hard her child tried to deny wanting to meet her former Grail War lot.
"Remind me again," Galahad butted in, "why is it a good idea to let …Astolfo, was it? To let Astolfo go on his own?"
Jeanne's eyebrow twitched. "Well, Marie wouldn't let him leave work as it's a rush with the beginning of the school holidays and all, Charlemagne and Roland showed up not too long ago, and, well… uh."
A glance was shared with Mordred.
"It's …Astolfo."
The combo was silent as the comment registered. "So," Shirou ventured. "He's your version of Percival?"
Another pause.
"I sincerely hope," Mordred begun, "that they never, ever, ever meet."
"Agreed."
Artoria nodded sagely, and even Gawain cringed slightly. A second Percy? No thank you.
0:0:0:0
"It is nice of you to come along as well, Sakura."
Gwen smiled at the demure woman, who shrugged. "Well, I stay for a good few months, and meeting Uncle Kariya would be nice."
Rin rolled her eyes before nodding. "And - and I can't believe that I'm saying this - Ilya as well. The imp might have been a cause for more headache then I would have liked, but she was still Emiya-kun's sister."
Lancelot glanced through the rear-vision mirror. "I agree with Lady Sakura. Meeting the Master and actually talking will be quite… nice."
"Hm," Rin glanced outside.
I wonder…
0:0:0:0
Hershel glanced at his wife, smiling as she scribbled down the size and weight of their found object: a moderately sized dagger, probably from the 4th or 5th century, pending.
The fact that they still found pieces of weapons and armor amongst skeletal remains on the surrounding fields where they excavated Avalon had to mean something.
He dared not think about it too much.
Hershel had planned to let Artoria and the Knights look through the found pieces once she was back, but it might not be possible, since these were needed in the labs, their sponsor's daughter having requested to take a closer look before they find their way into a museum.
He sighed.
The matter of the vacation was another entirely.
It was hard to believe that other people beside the Knights of the Round were 'Awoken', but it was a possibility he anticipated.
Bedivere had all but confirmed that some of Ireland's great heroes were frequent guests, the last time they talked, after all.
Lucina even went as far as to introduce her small circle of friends, two of whom were legends of Greece.
It had been jarring, but, Hershel supposed, time to finally fall into the deep water.
"I simply hope that she will be all right, in Germany."
Marianne smiled softly at the admission. "She is visiting friends, not enemies."
Hershel laughed. "I am allowed to worry, King Arthur or not, Mari."
His wife chuckled good-naturedly.
They were just finishing up for the day as she stopped suddenly; blinking.
"By the way," she started, "there is a request that came in this morning to look at some artefact a couple found - the design is apparently very similar to the ones from this site. You know, those."
Those meaning confirmed by Artoria to be from around the time the Battle of Camlann took place, and not centuries before or after.
Hershel blinked. "Really? Huh, who would've thought…" He straightened. "We can look at it, of course; especially with the Garden Party coming up and all that."
His wife smiled sweetly. "The Curator thought so too." That is, the curator of the museum that was sponsoring them. "We are scheduled to meet in ten days in Cardiff."
"Oh, how nice of -" he spluttered. "Cardiff?!"
Marianne shrugged.
Hello there!
This chapter features even more obscure references to the location of the Café, yaay! The first dessert features Outside People's reaction, and the second our very own Hotel Irisviel. And ooh, look - a potential plot thread with Hershel and Marianne going to Cardiff. Who might that mysterious couple be?
And meet Gawain's combo. It is very much Gawain's baby, and he dotes on it. Do not get between him and his combo, or you'll regret it.
Another also: Café now officially has it's first side-story written, oh-so-imaginatively called Kisses, because I found a challenge and had time while I waited for my flight... so, there. It's mindless fluff, anyhow.
Anyhow, onto the Reviews:
Delca: Aww, thank you!
And that he has, yes. It's actually "I'm husband, I'm king, you're wife", and it's more like - she's finding it hilarious that everyone actually thinks of Shirou as the 'wife', so she plays along. Believe me that Saber is more than happy to be the wife. She likes to scare the poor redhead, though, it seems xD
Nexus Infinity: At least a broken door. Maybe even more. (Obviously Shirou is the wife - at least, he's fulfilling the 'wifey' roles rather well)
A 'Reincarnated' Writer: Hmmmmmm~
That was what I was trying for, so I'm glad it worked out!
jamandrod: ...huh, you're right, they really barely interacted. I'll have to remedy that, for sure. They're actually somewhere between behaving like siblings and Shirou trying to be a role model-like-person, but it's not necessarily working out too well. Mordred rather likes him though, and is more amused than anything by it. She's not there at accepting him as a 'mother-dad' yet, but they're inching towards it.
hyperomegasonic26: Ah, no. Saber actually joked half-asleep that he's the Wife to her Husband and King, because the Knights are implying it the whole time.
Oh god, Shirou'd blow off the whole thing if Kotomine were to be the priest. At once xD Also, Morgan is, like, 60% already part of future chapters, so there. She'll appear somehow.
Jup, no duplicates.
Jeanne Alter isn't going to appear for now, due to the no-Alter rule above.
Aaaand... I've never really given it thought, so. Uh. I don't know? Haha.
017Bluefield: (1)He had to be manually rebooted xD
(2) Jup, things are moving fast. And Sakura and Medea lived together in Rider's flat, and Rin and Shirou had 'dormitory'-like buildings near Tootsuki.
Avalon the scabbard.
Mostly how happy she is for this new life with everyone around, and how glad she is that Shirou's there as well. And she's jumped onto the bandwagon of humorously/jokingly referring to him as wife :D
Vhosek: Weeell, I try, at least. SoL is so... calming. And Shirou and Saber Misadventures won't end there!
As a side note, I wish you all a Happy First Advent,
and as always,
Happy Baking Everyone!
