Despite being sick, I emerge from my slumber to bring you a chapter!

"You don't get to have an opinion on this, Emiya," Rin snarled, jamming her pointer finger so deeply into his ribs that something must have cracked. "Not after what you pulled."

Shirou slapped her hand away. "I don't get to have an opinion on whether or not we kill an innocent girl?" he hissed. "Even if it wasn't Sakura we're talking about, that's not happening."

Rin barked out a derisive laugh. "You still don't know what war is, do you? She is a Master. She's not some poor innocent bystander, Shirou, no matter how much you want her to be." She jabbed him again. "For all we know, her Servant is on its way here right now to kill us both."

"She wouldn't do that," he said with absolute conviction. "This is Sakura we're talking about. Sakura! Can you even hear yourself?"

With a growl of frustration, Rin whipped around and stomped a few paces away, crossing her arms over her chest. They were closed off in some kind of sitting room, the door locked with a heavy deadbolt. It was as fancy and well-furnished as every other room in the house had been; a distant-looking man with a goatee, a wine-red suit, and a condescending smile smouldered down at them from an oversized oil painting on one wall.

Sakura was locked in the library, and for all that Shirou had railed against leaving her there alone, he was thankful at least they weren't discussing whether or not she would be executed in cold blood where she could hear. Despite Rin's protests, he'd provided her with a heavy blanket and the biggest mug he could find, filled to the brim with steaming tea, so that hopefully she wouldn't feel too much like a prisoner.

"Come on," he'd said gently. "It's cold out here, right? Let's get you inside."

She looked up at him for the first time since he'd taken her hands, and her eyes… He'd never seen them so blank. But that wasn't true, was it? This was how she'd looked when she'd started coming to see him. So expressionless that there might well not be a soul in her body. "Why?"

He got the feeling that she wasn't asking why it mattered that it was cold, but he shook his head and answered that question anyway. "Because you're not wearing a coat, dummy. You'll catch something." The real question she was asking, why he was helping her…

Well. That was just a silly thing to ask.

Just out of his line of sight, the door slammed hard enough to shake the whole mansion, and Rin was gone. Sakura flinched like he'd taken a swing at her, so he forced himself to remain steady. That was something he'd learned, back then. When she was upset or withdrawn, she'd reacted well to slow and considered movement.

But he couldn't remember her eyes ever being so bloodshot.

He gave her hands a gentle pull, and she rose compliantly. Her mouth opened. Closed. She bit her lip, looking away.

He took a careful step toward the door, and she didn't move with him. He stopped.

"Are you…" She was even quieter than usual, and he had to lean in closer to hear. "Are you really okay, Senpai?" She hadn't let go of his hand, but she couldn't meet his gaze. "She didn't hurt you?

Shirou nodded. "Yeah. Some stuff happened, but Tohsaka saved my life. I know she can be pretty mean sometimes, but she helped me when she didn't have to."

Sakura just nodded, her eyes still firmly fixed on the ground. "If… if you say that, then I'll believe you."

With a gentle smile, he gave her hand a squeeze. "I do say so, so I'm glad we're on the same page." She didn't respond, but he continued anyway, as warmly as possible. "I saw some pretty good tea in Tohsaka's kitchen. I'll get you some, and we can talk, okay?"

For a moment, she tensed, and he thought she was going to run. Instead, she melted into a defeated slump. "Okay."

He and Rin had been arguing in circles for way too long. Every moment he had to stand here and remind Rin that Sakura was a human being who shouldn't just be put down like a wild animal was another moment that she was locked in a room, by herself, when something was very clearly wrong.

"If you want to hurt her, you're going to have to go through me," he finally said, planting himself in front of the door. "I'm not going to let you. Master or not."

Rin faced him with a cold expression. "You're picking her over me? After everything I did for you last night?"

"I'm not picking anybody!" Why couldn't she take a step back and see what she was doing? "I'm saying that you don't have to be enemies! You don't need to kill her, and she won't kill you!"

Rin bared her teeth. "You didn't see her out there. She would have killed me if she could have. That's not cowardice. That's realism." She pointed in what Shirou assumed was the direction of the library. "She made it very clear that we are not on the same side when she attacked me."

Once again, he tried to picture Sakura the way Rin had described her. Murderous and vengeful. He couldn't do it. Every time he tried, what came to mind was a face like a corpse, empty and broken, the way she'd been when he'd left her alone. He needed to be there for her. "Listen to me," he said with finality. "I'm going to go see her. You can kill me before that happens, or you can let me go. It's up to you."

Rin's eyes widened, but he didn't wait around to see what she'd do. He turned, swiping a key off the small table by the door as he went, clicked the deadbolt, and walked out of the room. She had a clear shot at his back. If she wanted him dead, he'd die. That's all there was to it. If he did, that was fine. At least he would have gone without compromising everything he believed in.

He didn't die, and he wasn't followed.

The circle pulsed regularly around Archer, enveloping him in a fine mist of mana that seeped into his every pore. It was silent, but he imagined he could hear a quiet humming. It seemed wrong that air so suffused with power should be imperceptible. His wound itched. He did not scratch it.

He had a good idea of what was going on upstairs, and he wanted no part of it. His past was his past, and it should stay his past. There was nothing that would be gained from seeing her again. Nothing that would make his self-appointed job any easier. He hoped Rin won out, he told himself. He hoped Rin would kill her.

That's what he told himself. Not that he was trying to convince himself to stay the course. Not that he'd frozen up the moment he'd heard his Master say Sakura's name. Not that he still cared about any of them after all this time.

The past was the past, and he would not long for what he'd lost a long time ago.

He didn't remember her face. He didn't want to remember.

He remembered her voice, though.

His face twisted into a grimace. "So you're back, I take it," he said to the empty air.

"I am," the empty air responded. A moment later, the presence of the invisible, black-armored Servant followed. It weighed down the air, even here. Two blazing points of blue fire materialized in the air, gazing down at him.

Archer regarded the space Assassin's incorporeal form occupied, face carefully blank. This would be a better distraction than wallowing in toxic nostalgia. "So what are you, Assassin?"

"What I am matters not. I am a Servant. Nothing else matters at this moment."

He shook his head. Evasive little shit, aren't you? "No, I think it does. You shouldn't be here. You've taken a space that isn't yours, like this is a game of fucking musical chairs, and I want to know why." Heat crept into his voice. Anger that he hadn't meant to display.

Assassin didn't respond.

"I don't trust anyone," he said finally. "But I especially don't trust you. I don't know why or how you're here, but at best, you're a sign that something has gone very, very wrong. I learned a long time ago not to believe in best case scenarios."

"Curious," Assassin said, his voice strangely distant. But then, as if the subject had changed while Archer wasn't looking, his voice hardened. "Distrust fits thee like an old suit of armor. Past the prime of its usefulness, yet too familiar to be discarded."

Silence hung heavy over the basement. Motes of dust danced in the light. The old house creaked as it settled.

"You know nothing," Archer whispered. "You have no idea what I've been through."

"Art thou guarded against the true nature of the world, or art thou as a child chasing shadows?" A detached amusement touched the words. "To know oneself is to know one's enemy, is it not?"

Something cold tickled the back of Archer's neck. A coincidence. That's all. "Speaking of enemies, I heard some of the yelling," he said absently, leaning back on his hands like a little kid. "You abandoned your Master, huh? Funny. You must want him dead as bad as I do."

"My Contractor was never alone," the air said simply.

"But, shouldn't he have been able to-" Archer paused, then chuckled ruefully. "Presence concealment, huh? Guess that's an Assassin for you."

"Had my Contractor ever been in true danger, I would not have hesitated to act," he rumbled. "Neither Rider nor the girl ever carried any intent to kill, today."

"Then why? What was the point of all of that?" No matter how he looked at it, it was a strange decision. Ready to act or not, it seemed like an unnecessary risk to take. "You had no guarantee you could put yourself in the way in time. Enemy Servants are fast, you know."

"I am faster."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"A simple test of observation. If my Contractor believed that I was present, his behavior may have been altered," Assassin said simply. "I wished to take the measure of him on his own. I wished to see who he was in the dark."

"That's it? And what'd you find out?" Archer snorted. "He's an idiot? I could have told you that for free."

"My Contractor is overly idealistic. Optimistic, perhaps beyond the bounds of good sense. He believes in people who have given him no reason to think of them as anything but enemies."

"You've got that right," Archer muttered. Maybe Assassin wasn't such a jackass after all-

"Shirou Emiya is a good man."

Or not.

With a roll of his eyes, Archer heaved a heavy sigh. "You too, huh? I don't know what you're all so blinded by when it comes to him." He paused, then gave a rueful shrug. "I mean, I guess you kind of have a stake in liking him, since he's your Master, but-"

"I do not like him. I do not dislike him. There is a place for good men, but I am unsure if a good man is what the situation requires." A heavy pause. "But I need not lecture thee on this subject. Thou hast some knowledge of being a good man in a world that is not kind to the righteous, I believe."

Again.

"What does that mean?" he asked quietly, a dangerous edge in his voice. His fingers twitched, longing for a blade. Bile rose in his throat.

Cold eyes bore into his soul, a blinding searchlight shining directly in his eyes. They pierced him, blasted through him, tore his defenses to shreds with the force of that look-

He can't-

Half remembered pain and fire. Self-loathing pumped through his veins like filthy blood, and he felt seen in a sense he was in no way comfortable with.

How could he-

The presence disappeared once more, fading away as Assassin climbed the stairs.

"What does that mean, Assassin?"

With a gentle knock on the door, Shirou closed his eyes and leaned against the frame. "Sakura? It's me. I'm by myself."

"Yes, um…" Sakura's muffled voice said haltingly from the other side. "Come in, Senpai."

Shirou fumbled for a moment with the old iron key, grumbling meaninglessly to himself until there was a satisfying click as the lock released. He pushed the door open, slowly re-entering the library.

Sakura was sitting on the ground a few meters in front of him, her knees folded under her. The blanket he'd found for her, scratchy and weighty though it was, was wrapped around her shoulders like a kid playing at being a queen. The mug he'd given her sat at her side, and it looked empty as he approached.

For a moment, he almost couldn't look her in the eyes. Seeing that pain again…. it would almost have been too much. But when he mustered up the courage, she was smiling up at him. She looked the way she usually did when she was sick; a little pale, a little sweaty, and he couldn't ignore how red her eyes still were, but she was trying to put on a good front. To pretend she was okay. "Hello," she said quietly, her voice just a touch raspy.

"Hey, Sakura," he said, returning her smile with as warm a grin as he could muster. He sat down facing her, crossing his legs under him as he did. "How're you feeling?"

She glanced away, and a touch of color tinged her cheeks. "I'm feeling much better than I was before." Was that embarrassment, was it shame? He genuinely wasn't sure. "I'm sorry I worried you and Tohsaka-senpai."

With a firm shake of his head, he regarded her frankly. "You don't need to apologize, Sakura. You're my friend. Of course I'll worry about you."

Sakura couldn't meet his eyes. "Still. I did something silly, and I made trouble." His chest ached with concern, but he remembered those early days well enough to know that she might not take a clear expression of it well right now.

"Sakura, listen. You're not my enemy. And no matter what Tohsaka says, I don't think you're hers either."

She stiffened, but didn't reply.

Her skin was cold as ice when he reached out to touch her hand. "Tohsaka says you're a Master." He could see her withdrawing into herself, and he pressed on. "Even if you are, it doesn't change anything. You're my friend, and nobody's going to hurt you."

Sakura sat back, drawing her knees to her chest. Her gaze was fixed on a faraway point to her left. "I gave her up."

Shirou blinked. "You… huh?"

"My Servant," she whispered. "I gave her up. I'm not a Master anymore. Not really."

He gave her a tentative smile. "Then Tohsaka won't have any reason to want to do anything, right?" That was a relief to hear. It didn't change anything for him either way, but it might be easier to convince Rin to let Sakura be this way.

"I didn't want you to be part of this," she said shakily. "I wanted you to be safe. And now you're… fighting."

"I'm okay?" Shirou rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little awkward. "I've got Rin on my side, and I do have a Servant. I'm not on my own."

"She won't be forever," Sakura said. "She'll hurt you when the time comes."

A slow frown overtook his expression. There was a strange conviction in the words that gave him more than a little pause. Does she know something about Rin that I don't, or is she just scared and hurting? "Why do you say that? Were you two friends?"

"Is your Servant strong?" she asked as though he hadn't spoken, throwing Shirou for a loop.

"Yeah, he's, uh…" Phantom pain buzzed through him as he imagined Assassin in the moonlight, armor seeming to absorb all the color around him. The brief flashes he'd gotten of Assassin's clashes with Berserker. "He's pretty tough. Don't worry about me, okay?"

Sakura seemed to mull this over, then she nodded. She smiled, and he thought he caught a glimpse of her normal self in it. "Okay. I'm glad you have that, at least."

Shirou leaned over to check her cup. Just as he'd suspected, it was empty. "Was that good? Do you want another cup?"

She shook her head, then looked chagrined. "I mean, yes, I liked it very much. But, um. I don't think I should go out there right now…"

Shirou gave the closed door a wry glance. "Yeah, I think Tohsaka might need a little while to cool off. But I can go get you some more."

Pulling the blanket a little tighter around herself, Sakura shook her head, but not unhappily. "Thank you, but I think I'm okay."

Was that the truth? He was having a harder time getting a read on her than usual. Or… was he just being more honest with himself about what he saw? Had she ever been okay, or had he just convinced himself that she was because he wanted her to be? Challenging her on it didn't seem like the right thing to do, though, so he just gave her another smile and kept talking.

"Yeah, I summoned an Assassin. Kind of by accident, you know? I'm not really much of a Magus, but-" He hesitated. With everything going on, he hadn't thought about what Sakura's being here actually meant. "Wait, does this mean that you're a Magus too?"

Something he couldn't identify passed over her face, so quickly he might have imagined it. She looked away. "Yes." Her hands tightened on her legs. "I'm sorry I hid that from you."

Shirou ran the idea through his head, turning it over, this way and that, to see if the lie was something that made him feel hurt. Sakura knows magic. He prodded at it. I don't know anything about the way she was raised, or what she was taught. How did that make him feel? "I understand," he said truthfully. "I don't know a lot about Magi, but my father always told me how important it was to keep that kind of thing secret. It's not like I ever told you that I knew all that stuff. Your family probably told you the same thing, right?"

She examined him out of the corners of her eyes. What was she looking for? A lie? Anger? She wouldn't find any such thing. Finally, she looked away again and nodded. "Yeah. Probably for different reasons, though."

"What do you mean?"

Sakura laughed quietly; he might have thought he imagined the edge of self-directed derision it contained, if he couldn't see how badly she was hurting. "I'm not a very good Magus. If people knew how weak I was, it'd make my family look bad." It sounded like she believed what she was saying, wholeheartedly.

Still, Shirou felt himself breaking out in a lopsided grin. "That's okay, I'm pretty bad at it too. You know, I've been training for years, and I can still only do one thing. Strengthening. Tohsaka thought that was pretty embarrassing when she found out, and I guess I can see why, but I worked really hard for it so I'm not annoyed." He leaned forward eagerly. "What kind of stuff can you do?"

The light in her eyes, so fragile and momentary, flickered and died. "I don't really want to talk about that right now."

A pang of guilt shot through him, and he shook his head. "Okay, then we won't. What were we, uh…." He fumbled for a few moments, then snapped his fingers. "Right! Assassin. He looks and sounds really scary, but he's actually very dependable. He's saved my life a couple times already, so I think I'm in good hands." He smiled, and his black eye stung. "Ow." Illya had made everything hurt a little less, but she hadn't quite made any of it go away. He was still grateful, but he wished she could have done a little bit more.

That lifeless look gave way to a kind of sad amusement. "Well, if he's so reliable, then I guess I can't complain too much." She glanced down. "Does he have black armor?"

Shirou blinked. "Uh, yeah, actually. Black armor, big spikes. He's really tall. Oh, and he's got a really creepy skull face, too, but he doesn't seem like such a bad guy."

She already knew that. What else does she know? Sakura's expression was so carefully neutral that Shirou knew she must be hiding some kind of reaction, but once again, this was not the time to push. "Hey, um." He felt sheepish all of a sudden, and found himself looking away. "I'm sorry I didn't let you know that I was okay. I didn't even think about how it might look if you decided to come see me this morning."

"You had a lot on your mind, Senpai." She rested her cheek on her knee and closed her eyes with a sigh. She did seem less tense than she had when he'd walked in, so he must be doing something right. Aside from stepping on the occasional land mine. "I'm not upset with you. I was afraid, but now I'm just glad you're okay."

"Also, by the time I realized I wasn't going to be home to clean up a little, I was kind of unconscious?"

Her eye opened just a crack. "So, when Father Kotomine said-"

Shirou groaned involuntarily. "You saw him?"

She nodded matter-of-factly. "Yes, he told me where you were. Kind of. He, um, made it sound like Tohsaka-senpai had beaten you up and kidnapped you. So I thought…"

Shirou wasn't sure exactly what face he made at that, but it was enough to make her giggle. That made him laugh, too, and his sour mood receded. "That guy's a bastard, Sakura. I don't think you can trust much that he says. I was out like a light, but Tohsaka didn't do it. She carried me here, actually."

"Yeah…" She looked doubtful.

Shirou hesitated. It might not be a good idea to ask this, but… "Sakura? Are you going to be in danger?"

She shook her head, but her smile took on a brittle fragility. "No, I don't think so. I'll be okay."

With a frown, he leaned in closer. She blinked at him. "Are you sure? I don't know what your circumstances are, but this is all pretty dangerous. Someone might think you're still a Master and try to hurt you."

She shook her head. "No, I don't think so," she said again, as though it were something rehearsed. Her tone suggested that she was implying something different, but he didn't feel like he had enough information to pull out the real meaning.

He felt like he had to ask. "Is Shinji the Matou Master now?"

Sakura hesitated, the corner of her mouth twitching violently, then nodded.

Shirou… wasn't sure how to feel about that, but he was pretty sure it didn't feel great. "Then even if you don't get attacked directly, you could be caught in the crossfire. Do you think he'll go out of his way to protect you?" He kept his voice as carefully neutral as possible — he wanted it to be a genuine, good faith question.

It wasn't really, though.

Sakura flinched. Her eyes cast back downward. "Yes," she said in a quiet monotone.

A familiar anger growled hungrily in his chest. "Did something happen?" He asked in a level voice.

She shook her head in a way that said something absolutely had.

Shirou reached his hand out a little, then hesitated. He didn't want to make things worse, but… He touched her shoulder. The blanket's material was rough and scratchy, but she felt surprisingly solid underneath it. "Sakura… I think you should stay with us. Just until all of this blows over."

She didn't look at him, and she didn't speak right away, but he gave her time to respond. "I couldn't… be a burden like that."

Shirou laughed quietly, more for effect than anything else. "Sakura, how many times have you taken care of me, or cooked meals for me when I was sick or busy, or helped me around the house? If it'll make you feel better, you can pretend I'm just paying you back for all that nice stuff you've done for me since we've been friends."

A war raged on her face. He didn't know exactly what she was saying to herself, the arguments she was making, but she clearly, badly wanted to say yes. And for some reason, she couldn't.

He gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "Besides, how are you going to protect me from all the way over there?"

A tiny gasp. He wouldn't even have heard it if the room hadn't been so utterly silent. She bit her lip. Chewed it for a few seconds. Finally, Sakura relaxed a little, gave a silent nod, and without preamble changed the subject. "So, um. What... happened?"

He blew out a long breath, trying to smoothly switch gears, despite the overwhelming relief and worry he felt. "Well, I guess it started last night. I stayed late cleaning the archery dojo, and I heard this weird clanging…" He told her everything, but he did downplay a few things. He hadn't been stabbed through the heart at school; it had been a glancing blow that had knocked him down. It wasn't pain that Assassin caused, but a deep exhaustion, like the feeling he used to get in his arms after a long day of archery.

It wasn't that he didn't trust her to know those things. He did, no matter what Rin said. She was just… carrying so much pain and worry. It was so heavy on her. She didn't need to know the horrible, gory details. She didn't know how badly the night had hurt, or how scared he'd been.

He wasn't a good storyteller. He kept stumbling over himself, forgetting details and having to circle back, mentioning things that hadn't happened yet. If he had to grade himself on presentation, he'd have no choice but to award himself a D+ at best. And yet…

Every time he described being in danger, her eyes would get wide, or her breathing would pick up, or she'd scoot a little closer. She laughed when he'd mention funny details that he remembered. She even gave his arm an ironic soothing pat when he described throwing his water glass, the kind you might give a worked up little kid who had done something silly over nothing. The worry lines on her forehead smoothed away. Her smile began to touch her eyes again. She started to look like the happy, if subdued, girl that he'd known. Maybe it was just a feeling of relief that he was okay, finally sinking in. Maybe it was a feeling of trust and maybe she was just fixing her mask. He knew he couldn't be sure.

But he kept talking, and he kept laughing, and he kept smiling. Even during the parts that didn't make him feel like he wanted to. Because if he could smile about everything that had happened, maybe she would too.

Rin didn't go to her room to scream into her pillow, but she thought about it really hard. Instead, she went to her room and meditated furiously, which in retrospect was probably counterproductive. By the time the knock came at her door, though, most of the anger had simmered out, leaving her mostly just tired and vaguely irritated. "Who is it?" she snapped, knowing damn well who it was.

"Me," Shirou's voice said helpfully. "Can we talk? Without all the yelling, maybe?"

"I wasn't yelling," Rin yelled back.

"Okay, then I won't yell," he said. Even through the door, he sounded as tired as she did. "Can you open the door, though, or are we going to do it like this?"

She glowered at the door, a headache throbbing in her temples. It had been a long few days. "Fine." She lifted a hand and snapped her fingers, infusing the gesture with a hint of power. Her deadbolt clicked, and a moment later Shirou entered.

He was still wearing the same nasty clothes, but she supposed he didn't exactly have a spare set with him. She would take the high road and not hold it against him, even if it was more than he deserved. "What do you want?"

Shirou sighed and ran a hand through his hair. At least he'd remembered to wash it before he'd gotten back into- no, no, she just said she wasn't going to do that. "Just so we're on the same page, you're not going to turn me into a frog or whatever, right?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Not at the moment." But god, was it tempting. She wasn't any good at transmutation, but some good old-fashioned body horror might do him some good. She didn't budge from where she reclined on her bed.

"Sakura doesn't have a Servant. She isn't a threat," he said, crossing his arms stubbornly. "Even if she wanted to fight, she can't. You don't need to kill her."

That couldn't be relief she felt. That would be a silly thing to feel. "You know this because she told you?" she asked, dripping with skepticism.

"Yes." He seemed to think he wasn't leaving any room for argument. "I checked her hands. She doesn't have a Command Seal."

"That's not the only place they can appear, you know," she countered, lazily brushing hair from her face. "You can't know for sure unless you've looked everywhere." A knowing smirk spread across her face. "Did you look everywhere, Shirou?"

His face instantly went bright red. "Wha-"

She waved a hand dismissively, letting her face go neutral again. "Don't worry. If I thought you had, I'd probably just kill you. She's not in a good place right now."

"Yeah, I don't think you trying to kill her was much help with that," he said pointedly. "You've got weird standards for what's okay and what's not in war."

She refused to consider the idea that he might be right. "I'm not going to apologize for that. I don't know if I believe she's not an enemy, but I'll believe she doesn't have a Servant anymore. She didn't try to kill me with it, and it hasn't shown up to bust her out, so sure. What's the Servant's identity?"

"I don't know."

"Its class?" Rin grilled him, refusing to give him time to think.

"I don't know."

"What happened to it?"

"She gave it away."

"To?"

"Shinji." He was matter of fact.

"Is that all you've got?" She was unimpressed. He could try a little harder, couldn't he?

He gave her an incredulous look. "I'm not your spy. I didn't go in there into interrogate her, Tohsaka. She's scared and she's hurting, and I talked to her until she felt better. She needs a friend."

He's like a kindergartener. Rin snorted. "I reminded you earlier, but it seems like you've forgotten already. This is a war, Emiya. There's no time for friendship, and there's no time to play therapist. Every minute we don't spend preparing or planning is a minute that our enemies are getting an advantage."

"I'm not in this fight to win, Tohsaka," he said calmly. "I'm here to keep as many people safe as possible. Even if Sakura wasn't my friend, she's innocent. If I start throwing people away to get the Grail, I won't be any better than…" He looked her dead in the eye. "Someone who would use it for personal gain."

The headache pulsed, entwining with the gnawing hunger in her gut to make a truly ugly feeling. "So, what? I'm not going to kill her. That's what you want to hear, right? Is that all?"

He shook his head. "I told you I wasn't picking sides, and I meant it. I'm going to keep Sakura safe, but that doesn't mean we have to stop working together. Nothing has changed."

Was that true? Had nothing changed? It felt like a lot had changed. She grimaced. "Okay, here's the deal. We're still allies. But I am not keeping her in my house. You want to protect her? Take her home. She's your responsibility. I won't lift a finger for her."

"Fine." He held up a finger. "One condition."

Her lip twitched, and she wasn't sure it it was trying to become a begrudging smile or a snarl. Maybe both. "Which is?"

"We spend tonight here. It's dark, and you can probably remember what happened last time we moved around after dark." She opened her mouth, and he shook his head. "I'll still cook dinner for you as payment."

Her stomach roared traitorously, and she threw a pillow at him out of sheer spite. The jerk actually caught it. "Fine. But it had better be the best goddamn dinner I've ever had in my life."

Shirou nodded seriously. "Thank you."

She frowned. "For what?"

"Doing the right thing," he said simply, and was gone.

"Yeah, and it's going to get us all killed," she muttered petulantly at the empty doorframe. "And it'll be your fault."

Thank you all for sticking around! 3 See you next week!

Next chapter: Omen