21st Century United Kingdom
London, England
"This is an unholy contraption."
Lancer glares at the machine, blinking lights taunting him for his umpteenth failure to get the prize.
"Get off the claw machine, mister!"
Archer stifles a laugh as the incensed servant glares at a group of young girls.
"Yeah! You don't even know how to play!"
"Silence! You-"
One girl ignores him and squeezes herself between Lancer and the machine.
Archer quickly grabs the other Servant's arm, pulling him away before he can get into a fight with children... Or destroys the machine out of spite. She knows too well how competitive he can be.
"Geez, he's even embarrassing his girlfriend," One of the trio rolls her eyes, skillfully whipping out a silver coin.
"She's not my-"
"I hope I don't get a boyfriend like that someday, " Another says and slurps from her drink.
"Come on, dear," Archer pulls harder, half-dragging him away. Are children really so rude these days?
And she bites the insides of her cheek to keep herself from laughing. Lancer looks so annoyed, fellow pedestrians are parting from them like the Red Sea.
"Are children really so rude these days?" He mutters.
She chuckles, both at the notion that they thought of the same thing and at how defeated he sounds.
"Oh, I think they can be rude at any age. Still, I never would've thought I'd see the day a female turn you down so harshly."
He gives a long-suffering sigh.
Despite being a woman herself, the dashing young king had plenty of female admirers in their court. And Archer considered it was one of her unofficial duties to ward them off as often and as *clearly* as she could.
Sir Kay often warned courtiers of the Queen's possessive streak.
"Well, well, don't you two look cozy?"
And then she sees their Masters sport matching grins. Following their gaze, she immediately steps away from Lancer, not realizing she was still holding his hand.
Blazes!
How long have they been walking?
How long has she held his hand?
She swears Rin is almost as bad at Merlin when it comes to teasing. She'll never hear the end of this now.
"Rin, Shirou." Lancer's voice interrupts her panicking. She recognizes it too as Rin's teasing grin falls from her face.
It's the voice of command.
"I need silver coins."
What?
"What?" Rin echoes. "Silver coins?"
"Sure, want to buy something?" Shirou nonchalantly takes out a few coins and paper bills and hands them over to his Servant.
"Yes." Lancer smiles and Archer swears his eyes glint golden. "This will lead me to victory."
"I shall return. Archer will see to your protection."
Wait, what? "You can't be-"
And he's gone.
Three bewildered figures stare at an empty space in the middle of the street. Two confused magi and one annoyed servant.
"What was that about?" Shirou finally asks after a while.
Turns out, a possessive streak is not the only one Queen Guinevere possesses.
Leave me to do the work, while you play all day, huh, Arthur?
"Follow me. I know a good restaurant where we can talk about it."
Two can play at that game.
The following morning, a red stuffed dragon is placed with care on a headboard. To the amusement of an equally red-wearing mage.
Notes: This chapter was a blast to write. Haha, I can just imagine how Arthur would feel after losing to mere children. That last sentence was my favorite though. I know Fate prefers lion imagery for Saber, but I don't think they were ever connected to the Arthurian myths. England, yes, but not the mythos. Fun fact, the flag of Wales, is rumored to be based on King Arthur's standard. Hence the red dragon. Oh and Rin is totally on this ship y'all. I headcanon she and Shirou read up on Arthurian lore after the 5th GW in homage to Saber and by St. George is she going to fix that terrible ending.