Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is property of Type-moon, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. This work is purely fanfiction and as such earns me no income.
*May receive some edits in the future and maybe additional dialogue.
*Fresh post. May have more than few mistakes here and there. Will update with corrections in several days or so.
Radix Book Café, a lovely café with an interesting theme centered on its wide selection of books that customers can read while they relax, and the costumed staff that dress up as servants who do their utmost in providing them with great care. Most people are attracted there by that unique theme, but what keeps them coming back there are the wide variety of delicious foods on their menu.
It is not surprising that the café receives a large number of customers from the city that visits on a daily basis. They attract all sorts of people from humans to faunus, since the staff is comprised of almost an even number from both races. Unlike some establishments, there is no animosity between the human and faunus staff, which makes it all the more enticing for faunus customers to visit. The customers also range from housewives and office workers to students and teachers.
On one particular day, some of the staff from Beacon have decided to take some time to discuss the misbehavior of some of their students, the ongoing preparations for the Vytal Festival and other various school related problems. It was suggested by one of the more portly professors that the discussion be best served in a more filling environment, to which, everyone had wholeheartedly agreed with.
"Since you were the one who had suggested we discuss matters here, Professor Port," sighed Glynda as she watched the man devour his steak. "I would hope that you would not be too focused on your meal this time."
Professor Port gulped down a piece of his meal and said, "Not to worry, Glynda. I shall be as focused on our talks like a Boarbatusk charging at its prey."
"Uh-huh." Professor Goodwitch just frowned and rolled her eyes at that. She wasn't really expecting much from him.
"So what is it that you think we should do with the children?" said Ozpin, who had wanted to get things back to their original discussion.
Professor Goodwitch had disagreed with letting the students off without any repercussions whatsoever, so now they had come to decide on an agreeable form of punishment. It should be something that would benefit the students, and not just to make them feel bad for what they did. That was what the other professors had agreed on as well.
"We should teach them how to handle responsibilities," said Glynda.
"And how is it do you suggest we do that?" asked Professor Oobleck, who had been drinking coffee from his mug. "With the upcoming events, we ourselves have plenty of responsibilities of our own right now."
"Not to mention that students from the various other Kingdoms have begun to arrive," Professor Port added as he dabbed the sauce from his mustache. "We still have to get them acclimated to our school and the city of Vale before the start of the school missions on the next semester."
The various Huntsmen Academies across the Kingdoms have sent their students to compete at the Vytal Festival. Many of them are still getting used to the difference between cultures and environment of their host Kingdom. Some have even gotten to a bit of trouble with the law already.
"Hmmm…" mused Ozpin. "I think I have the perfect idea on what their punishment should be now." A delighted smile was on his face as he thought of his brilliant plan for his students.
The Headmaster briefly outlined his idea to the rest of the professors. They had all nodded approvingly of it. Everyone was quite impressed with it since it would handle more than one problem that they had been tackling. Only time will tell though, if the students themselves would see it from a positive point as they had.
"Now what should we do about the procurement of additional staff?" asked Glynda. "With the arrival of the students from—"
The professor paused in her speech as a cart from their maid arrived with the desserts.
"Excuse me," said their twin-tailed haired maid. "I have your desserts ready for you."
Professor Port was quick on the draw. "Why thank you, my dear," he said so gallantly as he picked up his sizable dessert. "I must say, I am always amazed by the impeccable timing your staff has here."
"We do try to do the best we can." Rin gave the portly professor a smile. "Have you enjoyed some of the books we have an on the shelves right now? We do pride ourselves on providing adequate reading material for everyone but even I find myself lacking some books to read sometimes," she gave a loud sigh and looked slightly dejected at the end.
"Ah, that is truly unfortunate," agreed the professor. "Our libraries at Beacon Academy though would probably have most books that would be hard to find anywhere else."
"Is that so?" questioned Rin innocently. "I would love to browse through them, if I could."
"It is such a shame that we don't give access to such knowledge freely to the public," nodded Port once again in agreement.
"I wouldn't really mind working there, if it meant I would be able to read some of the books from time to time." Rin placed the rest of the desserts on each of the other occupants place on the table. "But I suppose, things are just not meant to be," she said wistfully.
"Actually…" Ozpin seemed very interested in what had just been said. "We do have an opening for a part-time assistant librarian at the academy for the start of the next semester. We were about to discuss that matter just now."
"Oh my, is that true?" said Rin in a pleasantly surprised voice. "I would love to have the opportunity to work there."
"Now that you mention it," said Port as he scratched his chin in thought. "I believe I mentioned that once before to another maid on one of my visits here."
"The work ethic of the people here are quite reliable," added Oobleck.
Professor Glynda was more questioning of the matter. "But what about your job here? Would they not be hard-pressed if you were to leave?"
"We are actually a bit overstaffed now," admitted Rin. "Our work schedule has been freed up immensely recently, so most of our staff are now available to work. We even have a new maid who is about to start sometime soon." Her smile glowed as she thought of the newly conscripted maid. "I'm sure she'll be quite popular with the customers."
"I see," said Glynda.
She was a bit more hesitant on hiring someone so quickly like this. Being a part of the staff at Beacon has great responsibilities, not to mention strict rigorous protocols to follow. There should be plenty of more qualified and well-established applicants available for them to choose from.
"I hope it's okay if I brought along my own tea," said Rin.
Glynda's brow rose up as she realized something. "Do you know how to make the tea here?"
Rin smiled ever so sweetly at the woman. "Of course," she said with a nod. "I'm the one who actually taught most of the people here how to brew almost all of the tea we serve. I am quite strict in regards to how tea is brewed so I usually make it myself. I believe only Shirou can beat me in some areas of making some of the other kinds of tea."
There was a pause before Professor Goodwitch suddenly said, "You're hired."
"Ahem," Ozpin coughed politely on his fist. "I believe I have the final say in matters like this." The Headmaster smiled at Rin. "We would like to welcome you in joining us at Beacon next semester," he said.
Rin curtsied towards the professors. "The pleasure is all mine."
"It's good that we've found at least one position filled out," laughed Professor Port. "I don't suppose you know any handymen around who're looking for a part-time work as well?" he jokingly asked Rin. "I believe Professor Goodwitch has been stretched thin a little lately due to the increasing amount of damage that students have been causing."
"Well…"
Glynda was quick to object. "I believe one exception has been more than enough," she said in a final tone.
"That's too bad," said Rin. "I'm sure Shirou would have found it nice to do work outside of cooking all the time."
"Shirou…?" Glynda clearly remembered the name. "The one you mentioned earlier?" she had still asked. "The one who could also make exceptional tea?"
"He is also one of the cooks here?" said Port eagerly.
Rin just nodded blankly in response to those questions directed at her. "He's actually the one who made all of your desserts right now."
The professors all stared down at their desserts for a moment before unanimously saying, "He's hired." They apparently didn't care that they were supposed to be hiring the man as a handyman rather than their own personal chef at school.
After her talk with the professors, Rin left them to finish their meals. She had a deviously evil smirk on her face as she walked back towards the kitchen. Sinister thoughts about the future was all that occupied her mind, whilst the professors were totally unaware of the snake that had just coiled itself around them.
She would thank her sister for such a golden opportunity that she gave her.
Illyasviel von Einzbern was in a good mood today. She was quite delighted to be able to spend her time out today, even though it's not with her newfound friends. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. A perfect day for the beginning of her planned day out since a while back. It was something she had looked forward to, ever since she found a new lease on life, one she was determined to live out fully and without remorse.
"Hurry up, Papa!" she said with the most delighted smile as she pulled a man close to her. "Me and Mama will leave you behind if you don't keep up."
Together with the happy little girl was a man and a woman who were both slightly red on their cheeks as she was in the middle of them and held on to them both lovingly, a picture perfect look of a young couple out with their beautiful daughter.
"Is it really necessary for you to call us that, Illya?" asked a completely red-faced Saber.
"We don't even look that old enough yet," said an equally red Shirou. "At least Saber doesn't."
Unlike the unwilling two with her, Illya was in really high spirits for the moment. "That wouldn't fair," she smiled. "Both of you had promised me that I could do whatever I wanted today, as long as it was reasonable anyway, since I had been working so hard lately."
It was true.
Shirou had wanted to bond more with his sister, now that she wasn't trying to kill him. They had only spent a few days together to get to know each other during the Holy Grail War, and some of those days included her getting Berserker to flatten him into paste. Heck, the killing-machine would have pretty much killed him, had it not been for Avalon and Saber's presence. Their current outing together was very much preferable than those other times.
Illya had also dragged Saber into the promise, since they've gotten quite a lot closer now. It was expected as much after the Servant had been telling Illya bedtime stories every night about Irisviel and a few very short ones of Kiritsugu. Saber had even told her of the time she and Irisviel had spent together on their first time to Japan and how much fun her mother had during their little side trip while wishing most of that time how she had wanted Illya and her father would have been there together with her. It was after she had heard this that Illya had tried hard to secure her Oniichan and Saber into going on a similar trip with her around Vale.
"I'm not so sure calling us Papa and Mama feels reasonable…" grumbled Shirou silently. He could see the smiling faces of the passerby around them, obviously more than enamored by what they thought was a sweet looking family on their trip.
Illya was very much adamant that she had wanted the trip to feel like as she would have with her parents. She had stated that Saber and Shirou would make adequate substitutes since both of them had spent a lot of time together with each one before. The two didn't have the nerve to deny the small girl her wishes since they knew far too well of her history about her parents. They had thought that a small thing like that would be easy enough.
That was until Illya had actually started calling both of them like that in public.
Calling them individually would have been fine, but being called that alongside the other meant they would be seen together as husband and wife. That was what really caused the embarrassment from the two. They couldn't look at each other directly as they walked together with Illya because of that.
"You two should stand closer together with me," said Illya. She pulled them both together towards her, hugging their arms with hers, and lessening the gap that Shirou and Saber had made from their embarrassment of being seen as a couple. "This is much better," she said in a very pleased manner.
Having to stay so close to one another, Shirou and Saber busied themselves by staring at everything else besides each other while their faces went even redder at the sudden close proximity.
The young couple and their child went from store to store around the commercial district of Vale. Staying a bit longer at some of the places that Illya had been interested in, like the stuffed toy shop. It momentarily brought Shirou out of his embarrassment as he saw the joyous look on his sibling as she held and fluffed a snow white teddy bear.
"You know, I used to have a lot of these kinds of things that Papa would bring me from outside the castle," said Illya in voice filled with nostalgia. "I was always so happy whenever he came back from his short trips before because he would always get me a souvenir like this one." She held the teddy bear far from her for Shirou to see. "That was until he never came back and grandfather had taken all of it to burn them."
Shirou noticed that Illya had begun to tear up at the terrible memory.
"Then how about Papa start you back on your collection with this one?" he said and grabbed Illya and the bear both to carry them towards the shop clerk. "I'll take the one my daughter's holding," he said with a grin at the clerk.
"Eh? Shirou?" Illya was surprised.
"Hey, you're supposed to call me Papa, remember?" smiled Shirou.
The clerk rang up the teddy bear and handed it back to Illya. She stared at the bear then back at Shirou and returned his smile. "Yeah, thanks for the present, Papa!"
Saber looked at that scene in front of her with pride and joy. Irisviel's daughter was finally able to smile with such wonder, something her mother would have wanted with all her heart. She had been angered and frustrated when she had learned from Illyasviel what kind of life she led under the Einzbern's care when her mother had died and her father was kept from seeing her. She had cursed Kiritsugu for pursuing his ideals, but couldn't help but feel that she was also at fault.
She knows nothing good would have changed since the Grail had been corrupted anyway. It still doesn't help that she felt like she had failed, not just Irisviel, but Illya as well. The two looked and acted so much like one another. Truly like mother and daughter.
"Mama!" Illya ran up to Saber and showed off her new bear. "Look what Papa gave me!"
Saber knelt down on one knee and inspected the toy with a smile on her face. "Yes, it's very lovely," she said as she stroked its fur.
"You should try hugging it, like this," Illya said and sandwiched the bear between her and Saber in a hug.
Saber hadn't expected the action, but nevertheless, smiled at the intimacy. "It does feel much better like this," she said. "Maybe next time we can get you a lion one."
"Yeah!"
"My, what a lovely daughter you two have," said the shop clerk. "It even looks like both of you are just newlyweds too." Shirou and Saber blushed a bit at that but didn't bother correcting the woman.
"Mama, Papa, let's go," Illya said while pulling on them. "I want to check out the other sights."
Shirou and Saber had thought it wasn't really such a bad experience. They had fun in their own right and got to be a little bit closer to each other. It's not like they had very many people here that knew them, so that lessened their embarrassment as well. Since everyone else was currently working at the café, there would be no one to tease them about their outing too much when they got home.
As the young family went out of the stuffed toy store to see more of Vale, someone among the crowd of passerby had watched them closely. The individual gazed at them until they were out of sight.
"Did you guys get the memo from Professor Goodwitch?" Yang asked Team JNPR who had just arrived at the café.
"Yeah," said Jaune as he and his teammates pulled up a chair to sit in. "To be honest, I was expecting something much worse really."
"I'm really excited!" said Ruby. "This is going to be so much fun! I can't believe they gave us such a cool assignment!" She was a lot more upbeat and cheery than anyone else about it.
Both teams had received news of their mandatory work from Professor Goodwitch the day before. It was only today that they had found out the final assignments that would be their responsibility. They had decided to meet up at their usual hang out to talk about it further.
"And having to spend our entire break serving as glorified tour guides is fun how?" spoke Weiss sarcastically as she had just arrived. "This wasn't how I imagined myself spending my break."
Blake looked up curiously from her book at the Schnee heiress. "It's not like you to be the one late for our meeting. That's usually something Ruby does," she said while looking at her team leader, who only gave her an awkward laugh.
"I just got a little sidetracked on the way here," said Weiss. "So who did you guys get?" She asked Team JNPR because she didn't want to bother beating around the bush.
"We got Team NDGO from Shade Academy and Team ABRN from Haven Academy," answered Nora as she remembered the list given to them.
"What about you guys?" asked Ren. "Who did you get?"
"Well," said Yang as she tried to remember. "We got Team SSSN from Haven Academy and—"
"We got Penny!" burst out Ruby in excitement. "I can't believe I get to show her around school and Vale. We can spend much more time together and all on the school's orders!" Stars glittered in her eyes as she said so, her delusions blocking out reality. "I already made plans for this! I named it 'Best. Break. Ever.' Oh, and I borrowed your binder for it too Weiss," she said towards her scowling teammate.
"You're forgetting the rest of the people from Atlas Academy, Ruby," reminded Blake. "There's still Penny's teammate Ciel, and Flint and Neon from Team FNKI."
"Huh?" wondered Jaune. "Where's the rest of their teammates?"
"They haven't arrived yet but the professors still gave us eight people to work with so they said it should be fine," answered Yang. "I really hope we get along well." She grinned as she thought of the foreign students.
"At least we might be able to find out more about them before we fight them in the tournament," said Weiss with a grin of her own but was a lot less benign than that of Yang's.
"Was Coco's team given the same work as us?" said Pyrrha.
Blake put down her book and answered, "Yeah, but they have less people to work with since their entire team wasn't at fault." A smile appeared on her face. "I heard Team CRDL had to do the same as well because of their recent behavior."
"I feel sorry for the guys stuck with them," said Yang.
"At least I know the Atlas students should be well behaved," said Weiss. "I don't know much about Team SSSN though. I heard they already got into trouble when they first got here."
Team SSSN had indeed had a bit of a problem with law enforcement during their arrival. The leader of the team had stowed away on a ship and had been caught stealing produce from a store. It was only a minor inconvenience because the rest of the team did say that they had already paid for their leader's passage but he just forgot his ticket after he was already on board. They had also reimbursed the store owners for any and all things that had been swiped.
While Team SSSN's leader did seem to have a penchant for monkeying around, it doesn't mean all of them are a bunch of troublemakers. Team RWBY will find out later on that Team SSSN may be the least worrisome of the students they have to show around.
Roman Torchwick bit down on the tip of his pen as he counted the crates of Dust crystals underneath the mansion of his young boss. He had spent the better part of his day organizing the quality and types of Dust crystals from the reappropriated goods that they had liberated from the White Fang.
It was a tedious job that didn't fit that well with someone of his illustrious background, but everyone else had their own tasks to do, and he wasn't really allowed to slack off due to his contract. Surprisingly, he was actually very good at that type of work when he didn't laze around.
"Hey, Roman!" called a voice from upstairs.
"Down here!" he shouted back.
A muscled man with sideburns came down the stairs. He carried a box filled with jars of red sap. Once he got to the basement, he laid down the box in a corner.
"Junior has been asking for the next shipment of red sap," said Tukson. "He says there's been more demand lately and he's going to need a few more extra than the usual amount."
"I'll take it up with the boss when she gets back," answered Roman. "What about those contracts with the jelly makers? Are we set on those for next month or so?"
Tukson took out a note he had in his pocket and read it. "Looks like Junior says they've given him a lot of legal jargon to go through. Says he's not really sure if he could deal with it right. He might need some help with that."
Roman frowned at that. "Can you take a look at it with him?"
"'fraid not," Tukson shook his head. "The little lady has me scheduled out of Vale during that time, I believe."
"I guess I might have to deal with it myself when the time comes," sighed Roman. "It's a good thing I also dealt in fraud, otherwise we'd have no one to deal with all this legal stuff."
Tukson laughed.
"What's so funny?" said Roman with an eyebrow raised.
"Nothing," said Tukson through his dying laughter. "It's just funny seeing a master criminal like you be so good at all these management stuff."
Roman just grunted at him. "Being a career criminal isn't easy as people make it out to be. There's actually a lot of work involved in it besides the violent parts of it," he answered seriously.
"I think this jobs a lot better than any of our old careers," Tukson said as he started heading out. "Just take care not to get swallowed up by our former employers," warned the faunus at Roman. "You know what they'd do to traitors like us if we're caught."
"Yeah, yeah," waved Roman in response. "I'll worry about that when it happens."
There was no telling what would happen in the future but Roman wasn't really the type get caught up on what may or may not happen with things so far off. He'd just deal with it when that time came. And he's hoping that when it does, he'll have something with a really big boom to back him up.
A/N:
I've gotten more of the serious parts of the story fleshed out with the Fate cast. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of ideas with some of the more mundane parts of life in Vale for them. If you have any suggestions in regards to that, you can post it in a review or message me. I have some more serious things planned out for that semester break, but most of it only involves Illya. So break out your ideas and suggestions for the rest of the Fate characters so I can either do that or make an idea of my own based off of those.
You'll see more of Shirou and Rin be an active part of the story at the start of the RWBY's next semester, which is season 2 of the show.
I'm also piggybacking a poll on this chapter for people's interest in a few potential crossovers I plan on taking when this story gets too close to the show. You can vote on which ones you guys are interested in the most. You can check my profile for the poll and the description for the crossovers. There's probably no time limit for that poll. I didn't include the ones that I would be unable to write because the source material is not done or there is not enough of it yet.
As always, please read and review. It will help me if you can point out some mistakes in spelling, grammar and inconsistencies as well. Please do try to make constructive criticism.
You can check my profile for updates.
P.S.
I'd like to remind people to try and be civil when arguing your points to one another and be respectful. Please don't start using the review section to insinuate others are not smart enough to see your point of view. Make valid arguments and try not to get offended about other's opinions. Also, maybe try to message each other rather than post it on the reviews like writing on a wall.