A Night to Remember

(Emiya house)

(Shirou)

After hanging up the phone, Shirou looked at Sasaku who turned away to walk back to presumably the guest room where she was 'staying'. A moment later, realizing he was standing still, she motioned for him to follow and he quickly caught up with her.

"Are you doing ok?" he asked when she didn't comment on, well anything really, since she was simply silent. "Since we'll probably be fighting on the same side even tomorrow... er I'll think of something."

"Shirou, I was thinking." She spoke with a light and disconcertingly cheerful tone. "You seem to be misunderstanding multiple things." Rather than going to her own room like he expected, she opened the door to his and pulled him in.

"I thought I locked that?" was all he said in realization of what she had done. "Did you do something to it?"

"That'll be number one. Oh, sit down," she said in response, sitting down next to where he had laid out his futon. "As useful as it might be, and as much as I'd like to, I can't teach you my magecraft."

"I understand," he said, remembering how she had earlier warned him against volunteering any information to Rin or Kuro, as opposed to an exchange. "You have to guard your magecraft."

"Don't interrupt," Sasaku said absentmindedly. "It's a can't problem. The system I use doesn't align with the standard forms. Or rather, as a Servant it basically got shoehorned into a combination of things magi here would call a Sorcery Attribute, Origin, and Element, which I can't pass on to you. There might be ways around it, but the best way would be to get a local magi to teach you."

"You mean Tohsaka."

"Yes, it's to your, our advantage if she thinks you're both useful and controllable. Bring it up with her tomorrow when we're going through the school." She nodded in satisfaction as he nodded to make his agreement clear.

"Wait a moment, then that earlier was a plan of yours?" She held a hand up to stop his outburst.

"I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Your concern for me is understandable, but seriously, I'm the Servant here so worry more about yourself please."

"That, well... I won't apologize for worrying about your wellbeing. Kuro went too far."

"Really?" she sighed. "The child using a drain skill on me is too far, as opposed to someone trying to literally bind my will? Hey Master, how old do you think I am?"

"Not to be rude but, you're older than even Taiga, right? Since you mentioned it before, I think."

She thought for a moment. "Ok so I've apparently lost a massive amount of memories. Thanks Grail-slash-World, no prizes for guessing why it's all gone."

Shirou blinked as she simply dropped the topic. "More importantly, don't let that girl get her hands on you. Because you can die from having all the mana drained from you. Not that she'd intentionally do so, or at least when she can get her hands on me I guess..."

"That doesn't disturb you?"

"I'd be more worried about being accused of cradle-robbing if it wasn't for the fact she clearly enjoys dominating me, and I have no say in it at all."

"That really doesn't disturb you?" Shirou muttered before realizing something. "Sasaku, don't tell me you're actually interested in girls?"

She gave him an incredulous look that summed up her reply before she even gave it. "No. Where did that thought come from?"

"It just seems someone would be upset about something like that." This seemed to tick her off.

"Shirou, you might be old enough to get married, but it's too early for you to learn about what a husband and wife get up to after a few centuries together. For some reason I do remember that... wow whoever made this Grail system has a twisted mind."

Somewhere, a certain magician of the Second Magic found his attention drawn to a particularly interesting timeline.

"... Anyway, Kuro is really innocent even if she likes acting devilish." Sasaku continued after an odd pause. "What we need to discuss isn't my situation, but yours. With Rin, that is."

"? Eh?! Why?" he exclaimed.

"Basically, she is far too clever for her own good and if she ever has a chance to get at you unsupervised, which is likely, it could ruin everything."

While I can definitely see her point, "If I acted differently, wouldn't that seem suspicious?"

"Oh, I wasn't being specific, let's say this is more about girls in general, ok? You strike me as someone who would have women problems." He had some difficulty seeing how that was though.

"You think Rin's interested in me? She seemed rather unfriendly, though. Or rather scheming might be more accurate."

"That she is, though the first part is more aimed at me. I don't know why, but it turns out well since she decided to use the geas on me instead of you."

"If that's 'well' then you have a way out?"

"Perhaps. You see, the Command Spells you have," she pointed to his hand, which had its markings hidden in some manner of her doing, "is not unlike the ability to give geas-level commands to your Servant."

She paused, but continued quickly as he was about to say something, " As far as I can tell, it's the authority to have the Grail release mana for all manner of effects. For example, send you or me that mana directly, or allow Servants to go past their usual limits, or even other miraculous feats like teleporting. In short, they are really valuable."

"There's a way around them?"

"Think of the command spell or geas as a really hard shove. Servants are quite heavy as it were, so such a command might need a while to take hold. Or it might be outright resisted, or anywhere in between. I'll wager that if you used a command spell to specifically order me to 'Kill Tohsaka Rin', her geas of 'Do not betray Tohsaka Rin' would lose out. Especially if I agreed with you."

"Ah."

"That's why it was a mistake to not use it on you. But she probably didn't consider the possibility of controlling me through you. Anyway that's more of an issue if she becomes suspicious of you."

"I'm listening."

"Basically there's two extremes to be careful of, people who want to own you and people who want to be owned by you."

"The second doesn't seem that dangerous though." He wondered how common that type of person was.

"They're probably more dangerous, if only due to being less predictable. Being excessively selfless can cause serious problems, but that's for another day." She shrugged.

"You think Tohsaka wants to own me?"

"She seems like the controlling type, at least. Call it intuition if you must."

"Then, Kuro?"

"That child probably wouldn't mind being your pet, if you ask me. She would love to turn me into her pet though."

Pet? "I shouldn't have asked..."

Shirou blinked as he noticed his clock had apparently left his desk and was sitting next to Sasaku. Actually, she was starting to glow, or shimmer. "Is this related?"

"Yes, you remember earlier I said it wasn't possible to teach you my magecraft, but there might be ways around it?"

He nodded after catching on to what she was implying.

"It's time to try them. Wait, let me borrow your healing miracle while we do this, it'll cause problems otherwise."

"Sure," he said. After a moment the glowing object appeared, but unlike before it resolved into a blue-and-gold sheath in her hands before disappearing. "What did you do with it?"

"Just stored it in my Armory so it wouldn't interfere. I'm going to try and stimulate, more like modify, your magical circuits, which it wouldn't allow."

"So, you're saying you can just make me a better magus?"

"Not really, but if you can generate more magical energy, I at least can draw it off and use it. ((Higher Connection)) doesn't have any scaling on it, so I'll have to get creative in order to obtain more energy."

She thought for a moment before continuing, "It will also help increase your resistance to some things, which is more immediately useful if we're going to be fighting in some magus' Bounded Field. There's some other benefits, but since this isn't a certain thing, you're going to have to trust me for now."

"Do I need to do anything specific?"

"Just go to sleep. Like with muscles, the body handles its magical circuits better when you're resting. Hmm, speaking of muscles, you have a pretty nice set huh... maybe I can see why Rin might want to get her hands on you."

"What?"

"Just talking to myself. Try to relax. You've already taken in quite a decent bit of my magical energy that was hanging around in here without adverse effects, so at most this might tickle or something."

"That's not the most reassuring," he yawned. "But at least... gaining some power... would be worth it..."

After all, almost all power demands sacrifice. And pain.

(Sasaku)

"Yeah," she said, noticing he had dropped into sleep right on cue. "Power sure is handy to have."

Sasaku closed her eyes to better analyze on the energies flowing around and through her Master's physical form. Nodding to herself more out of habit than anything, she pulled in a good amount of her Realm and concentrated it around the two of them.

Realm locally reconfigured for best use of Origin: Authority (Delegated)

Analysis enough for good resonance with Element: Information (Knowledge)

And enough magical energy to power the use of Sorcery Attribute: Alchemy (Exchange)

Though it was more of a magical-type surgery than an experiment, she still smiled in the anticipation of learning something new.

Right, let's see what upgrades I can buy with this expenditure.

l

(The same time, but somewhere else?)

(Shirou)

Ah, my head aches again. It feels like I just forgot something. What was it this time?

Dazedly, I look around the warmly-furnished room, my thoughts seeming to clear up after taking in the familiar scene. Yes, I was preparing for something.

It's the sensation of a familiar signature, rather than the door soundlessly opening or closing, that finally reminds me rather, it was someone. He's already halfway to me before it all sinks in.

"?" He looks at me quizzically as I simply stare at him from my place at the foot of our bed. "Is something wrong?" he asks after a moment of this.

"No, I was just thinking... about something, I guess."

"Hmm... I see," he mutters without any actual thought. "It always the past or future with you, and looking like that I'd say past."

"I guess," I reply noncommittally. "I don't remember."

"Yeah, yeah."

Without any warning, he picks me up and lightly tosses me into the middle of the bed. Various pillows go flying into the air as I slam into them, and then again as he pounces on my splayed-out form.

"?" I'm a little confused.

"I'm actually still wondering how you managed to successfully force yourself into forgetting something, but that's not really the problem here."

He cheerfully, or angrily, pins me down for emphasis. "No, I ran back - nothing happening at the Office obviously - and you're just zoning out about something you've literally forced yourself to forget? I'm just a little annoyed by that."

"Oh?" I'm just smiling while looking into his eyes. I wonder what he's up to?

"Ah whatever," he mutters flippantly. His demeanor changes as he settles himself between my legs. "I'm just going to add more stuff to you that you won't forget. Physically, of course."

His grin is quite winning, if rather out of place. "And how long did it take to come up with that?"

"I didn't, it was spontaneous like you said to before."

"It was more of a joke," I replied quite seriously. He just nods while rolling up the hem of my nightgown to keep it out of the way. "Should I take that off?"

"Nah, maybe later."

"... I don't know how I'd live without you," I say a bit later as he pulls away to undress.

"It's a good thing I both don't plan to die, and am immortal," my husband comments wryly. "But I already know that even if you somehow managed to off yourself... what am I even saying."

"Ha ha," I laugh as he finishes and returns to me, abandoning his previous line of thought. "Come over here. Dar~ling~"

Wait a minute.

l

"What the-!"

Shirou practically jumped out of his futon upon waking up, tripped on the blankets, and fell on Sasaku who was sitting just a short distance away.

"Huh?" Being a Servant, she had no issues catching and then depositing him back where he had been sleeping.

"Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?" she asked with some concern. Doubly because she hadn't sensed anything going wrong.

"Uh, ah... oh, it was just a dream," Shirou muttered to himself after looking over his body. "Phew."

"O...k...?"

l

Notes:
Sasaku's Realm is basically a modified version of what you get from the Caster class skill Territory Creation (see Temple Creation, Workshop Creation etc).