Matsumoto returned to the Fuyuki Memorial Park to fetch her drinking buddies. By the time she had gotten there, the bodies had already been buried. The scarce visitors and the decrepit look of the place more or less insured that they would not be found for very a long time, if ever.
After picking up her friends, they returned to the Velvet Room, where she instructed Renji to get Shirou's blood off the seats.
The redhead bitched but did as he was told all the same. Matsumoto had enough blackmail to shame him into oblivion if so she desired. She wouldn't, but Renji did not need to know that.
That's what the fool got for thinking he could out-drink her.
She made her way down to the Reverse Side through the Ahnenerbe and then strolled into the Urahara Shoten.
"Welco- Oh, it's just you," Yoruichi said, losing whatever shred of enthusiasm she had.
"Well, fuck you too," Matsumoto replied easily, closing the door behind her. "And here I was, trying to give you some good news."
"Ha! Your news are usually good only for yourself. I remember last time you-"
"The Wei Clan is over."
"- did that... Say what now?"
"The Wei Clan is done for. Its top fighters are all dead. Wei Kang included."
"Are you kidding me?" Yoruichi asked, clearly unconvinced. "As a group those guys were a pain in the ass even for me."
"I suppose they just underestimated their opponent, though in their defense, I too would have dropped my guard if I cut Shirou in half like they did and he still kept coming at me."
Matsumoto had barely finished that sentence that Yoruichi had somehow gotten past the shop counter and had pinned her against the wall.
'Goddess of Flash, indeed,' she thought amusedly.
"What the fuck did you just say?" she hissed, inches from her face.
"Little Shirou called me to pick him up at the park, earlier. When I got there, Wei Kang and his buddies were all dead and Shirou was wounded. And by wounded, I mean he had been cut shoulder to hip, with his torso hanging to the rest of his body by a thread of flesh and by a katana that he used like a pin between the two parts. I'm not joking."
"... was he alright?"
"Which part of what I said made you think... Oh, right. I suppose you saw some shit in over a century, Grandma."
"Answer the damn question."
"He talked and walked... with a bit of help from his guardian. He said he would have been fine when I dropped them at his place, but he didn't sound too convinced of his own words if you ask me. I know you took a shine to him, so I thought you may want to know what happened, in case he doesn't make it."
"... fuck."
The door to the outside slammed open and only then Matsumoto realized she had been released. By the time she looked outside, the door to Ahnenerbe had already been opened and closed.
Well then, she had her share of fun at other people's expenses for the night. Time to get back to work.
She had a client scheduled in less than half an hour.
Yoruichi flew across the night of Fuyuki. It was far too early for roofhopping in her human form. There were still too many people moving about the city, but in her cat form was much slower. People don't randomly look up, unless they search for something they know about their eyes level. Besides even if they did, there was no way they could catch a glimpse of her at the speed she was moving at.
Moving in a straight line she went from the Red Light District to the residential area where Shirou's house was located in less than ten minutes landing right in the middle of the courtyard.
She stepped onto the wooden patio purposefully letting her footsteps be heard to announce her presence. It was not a good idea to sneak upon a wounded man unless you were planning of finishing the job.
When she got to his room, she slid the door open and had to move out of the way of a blow that would have split her head in two had it connected.
Fujimura Taiga stood in the room, with a bloodied katana held by heavily shaking hands.
"Stay back!" the school teacher threatened. Behind her, Yoruichi could see a futon under which she assumed that Shirou was resting. At least she hoped he was resting, because he was far too still for comfort.
"Fujimura-san," she addressed the panicked woman. "I'm not Shirou's enemy. You remember me, don't you?"
"I... I don't know what's what anymore. Why are you here at his hour? How did you get inside? What do you want?"
Yoruichi took a step back. Taiga was in no way a threat to her when she was in her right mind, much less when she was barely keeping her wits. If anything she was more of a danger to herself.
"I heard from Matsumoto...-san what happened earlier. You've met her, yes? The people who attacked Shirou tonight... they were my enemies. Some time ago he saved me from them and gave me shelter."
She had never quite put it like that, even to herself. Shirou had saved her life and all she ever did for him was making things difficult for him.
"So... it's all your fault," Taiga concluded, hands gripping the sword more firmly.
Yoruichi flinched. It wasn't often that someone managed to make her feel guilty about anything, but the other woman's words had struck her on the same spot she was currently busy tearing open herself.
Part of her mind objected. She had not asked for Shirou's help that night on the bridge. He involved himself of his own volition.
That did not change the fact that it was because of her that he was grievously wounded.
Why did it matter to her what happened to him? She had outlived more people than she could count and she had learned to let them go and move on.
He wouldn't be the first person to die because they involved themselves with her. What set him apart from the rest?
'He reminds you of her.'
She squashed that thought down viciously and returned her attention to the armed woman.
"I suppose it is my fault, Fujimura-san. Now, are you going to let me try and help him, or do I have to go through you?"
Taiga hesitated. "Can you help him? He said he would be fine by morning."
"So Matsumoto told me. She also told me he didn't sound too sure."
Taiga's looked away from Yoruichi and to Shirou's unmoving form. It was less than the time of a heartbeat, but it was a more than enough for Yoruichi to step in and yank the blade out of Taiga's hands.
"Ah!" she cried, stepping back defensively from Yoruichi.
"I just want to help," she whispered one last time, before turning and approaching Shirou-s prone form. She kneeled next to him and slowly pulled away the covers, revealing the blood soaked bandages wrapped around his torso.
She checked his breathing and discovered that there was none to be found. Even the his pulse was completely absent.
No matter how she looked at it, this a was a corpse. Shirou was dead.
She felt the familiar sense of loss, muted from having experienced it too many times in her far too long existence.
A single tears fell from her eyes and onto his face. Shirou's face frowned and his eyes darted around behind his eyelids. Then he was completely still again.
"He's alive," she said in surprise, releasing the breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"W-well of course he is," Taiga said indignantly. "He promised me he would be fine and he always keeps his word."
"Yeah, he's a stand up guy, isn't he?" Yoruichi snorted, surprise at the sheer intensity of the relief she felt. "Still, there's nothing I can do for him now. Whatever's keeping him alive in this state is beyond my understanding. Some type of Magecraft, I presume. Not exactly my field of expertise."
"So what now?"
"Now nothing," she replied, tucking him again under the covers in and standing up straight. "All we can do for him is trust that he know what he's doing."
"Does he?" Taiga asked. "Know what he's doing, I mean."
'If he did he wouldn't have taken me in,' her mind whispered. 'He would have let me to my fate.'
"I'd like to think so, yes," she replied instead. "And you should do the same."
"... I don't know what I should do about anything anymore," With those words, Taiga sat down on the tatami. "This is all too much."
"For what it's worth, you're holding yourself remarkably well. Ordinary humans don't fare all too well when they are introduced into our world."
"... the Moonlit World?"
"Oh? Got the introductory course from Shirou-chan already?" Yoruichi asked, reverting to her usual playful demeanor now that she was less worried.
Taiga shook her head. "Just a few bits and pieces."
"If you got any questions, I don't mind answering them."
"I...," Taiga started, but then fell silent. "No. He said he would tell me everything himself tomorrow. I... I think I 'd rather hear it from him."
"Hmm," Yoruichi agreed. "Alright then. There shouldn't be anyone else who would come after him because of me, but I better hang around until he's recovered. I owe him at least that much."
"Thank you," Taiga said with a nod of her head. "And... sorry about trying to kill you."
"Ha! Don't sweat it," Yoruichi laughed, handing back the sword she had taken from Taiga's hands earlier. "Anyone would have taken a swing at an intruder in the middle of the night, even if they hadn't been in your situation. You've got guts and I like that."
Taiga snorted and slowly relaxed a bit, looking better than she did before. Even though she had been completely outclassed, having had the opportunity to fight had restored a portion of self confidence and being in a familiar place with someone who she could now consider an ally put her at ease.
"I'll just go fetch a futon from my room and I'll be right back," Yoruichi informed, realizing what she had just said only after the words had already left her mouth.
The temperature in the room went for a steep dive and if there had been any music in the background, it would have stopped at the sound of a vinyl record scratching.
"What do you mean your room?"
Yoruichi winced. It seemed that among the many things Shirou had to yet explain to his guardian, there was the fact that he secretly shared a roof with an adult woman.
Yoruichi didn't need to ponder how that would look in the eyes of society. She wouldn't want to be in Shirou's shoes when he'd have to tell that part of the story, partly because she didn't want to be in her own shoes right there and then.
Fujimura Taiga was no threat to her, the difference in their ability was the same as night and day.
Yet, even knowing that, Yoruichi unconsciously took a step back when Taiga rose in one fluid motion, blade held to her side. If she didn't know any better Yoruichi could have sworn that the other woman's eyes were burning with an ominous light.
"Now that I think about it, Yoruichi-san, I do have some questions that I'd like you to answer."
Yoruichi told herself that the beast-like growls she could hear all around her were merely the product of her overactive imagination and that the shadows of the room were by no mean whatsoever closing down on her.
She knew she should have nothing to fear from Taiga, but she also knew that there are forces in the universe that are best left unchallenged, no matter how powerful one was.
Needlessly provoke a mothering tiger is a madman's endeavor.
"Can I just go fetch my futon real quick?" she asked in a last ditch attempt at getting the hell out of there.
Taiga smiled warmly but the room became a little colder instead.
"No."
Thus, one of the longest nights in Yoruichi's life had begun.
[EMIYA SHIROU]
[THE GAMER]
[LV 27- 1500/26000]
[HP: 2700][MP: 35][MC: 27][ST: 850][SP: 11]
[STR: 42][DEX: 43][INT: 50][WIS: 33][CHR: 77]
[You have slept in your bed. HP, ST and MP completely restored]
Shirou's eyes snapped open. For a brief moment, he didn't recall the events of the previous night, rather his mind grasped at the vanishing fragments of the dream he was having.
A dream made neither of swords or the fire which had forged them. No, oddly enough, he had dreamed of a tiger having shodown with a cat of all things. At least, that was the impression he got. As most dreams are wont to do, it had vanished from his mind after he had blinked a couple of times.
Grasping at straws, his mind latched on the memories of the previous night, and all that they entailed. The hand which he had been holding when he fell asleep was no longer in his grasp and he immediately sought its owner in the futon next to him.
It was so that he found himself looking into Shihoin Yoruichi's eyes, laying on her side.
The dark skinned woman looked back it him impassively.
"Finally awake, I see," she told him as if everything was perfectly normal, even though it clearly wasn't.
Firstly, Yoruichi hadn't been there the previous night. Secondly, Taiga was laying right behind her, drooling all over Yoruichi's neck, gnawing on the dark skinned woman's shoulder while she slept.
"Not a word," Yoruichi warned before Shirou could even think of asking a question.
"Bu-"
"Not. A. Word," she reiterated, and Shirou decided that it was for the best to do as he was told. For one, he did not want to incur in Yoruichi's wrath, but he also wasn't sure which Taiga-induced madness had brought this forth.
Some things were simply best left unknown.
He pulled off the covers, heavy from all the blood that had soaked them. This futon would have to go straight to the incinerator.
Standing to his feet, he marveled at the complete lack of pain. His wounds had completely recovered as he had hoped, which was further confirmed when he tore away at the bloodied bandages.
His chest was stained encrusted by dry blood, but there was otherwise no sign of the horrific injuries he had suffered.
He looked closer to a murderer rather than the murder victim he almost had been.
"Huh," Yoruichi said, taking note of his unblemished torso. "You actually recovered from something like that. You are tougher than a cockroach."
"Thanks... I guess," he replied, unsure whether he was being praised or insulted.
He had no chance to ask, as Taiga's eyes opened and slowly turned on him.
"Mwaah?... Shirou...?" she blinked and her eyes found focus, a nightful of memories flashing behind them. "SHIROU!"
He was knocked down by a striped blur before he had the opportunity to brace himself.
"Ooof!" he wheezed out as hit the floor. He found himself pinned on the ground by Taiga's weight, who was straddling him as her eyes and hands roamed his body, searching for wounds that were no longer there.
"You're alright... you are... you are... W-W-Waaaaaaahhhh! Shiroooou!"
It was so that he found his head buried in her bosom, while Taiga shed tears of unbidden relief.
Shirou couldn't have found it within himself to push her away in such a state even if he had wanted to. Instead he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back, prompting her to squeeze him even tighter.
Between her wails he heard the sound of Yoruichi standing up and leaving the room without saying a word.
Shirou didn't know what had transpired between the two women in the course of the night, but Shirou was nonetheless grateful to Yoruichi for being with Taiga while he couldn't. Later he would find a way to properly convey his gratitude.
For the time being he had a armful of tearful tiger to put at soothe.
Eventually, after some time, Taiga started to calm down. As her cries turned into hiccups, she loosened her grip on Shirou and he could finally crane his neck to look up at her.
"Sniff... don't you ... sniff... scare me like that ever again," she told him, drying the last few tears with her sleeves.
Shirou closed his eyes and sighed.
"I can't promise you that, Fuji-nee. To be a Magus is to walk with death."
"Then... sniff... stop being a Magus," she whined.
"I can't do that either. I promised Kiritsugu, you see."
"Promised what? That you'd get yourself killed?"
"That I would become a hero that can save everyone."
Taiga frowned at his answer, for it was what you'd expect from a child and in her eyes he had stopped being one an eternity ago.
She looked into his eyes and she knew that he was not joking just as surely as she knew that it was not a wish born of naivety, but the resolve of a man had just a few hours before had taken human lives.
No, Emiya Shirou was not a child. The last shreds of that misguided notion disappeared from Taiga's mind for good. The man in her arms was one who chose a path of hardship of his own volition. A path fraught with danger, blood and death.
She understood then that this was the reason why she had fallen for him, in spite of all logic and morals. Why she could not see a child when she looked at him.
Emiya Shirou had already exceeded mere mortal men and their small logics. Whether he realized it or not, he already was a hero. Perhaps not yet the one he was hoping to become, but he was a hero all the same.
With this realization, Taiga suddenly became aware of how close they were, of how the heat of his half-naked body warmed her own even through her clothes.
She was aware that he was was man and she was a woman.
Her throat was inexplicably dry all of a sudden and she found herself licking her lips unconsciously.
"Fuji-nee?" he asked.
"Shirou, I..."
*Grooooowl*
The famished beast in the depths of Taiga's stomach made itself known with the worst possible timing, shattering the moment they were having.
Taiga blushed a fierce red, looking away from him in embarrassment.
Rather than laughing or mocking her playfully as he was used to do, he held her tighter, burying his head into her chest with a sigh.
"Thank goodness you're fine. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you."
Taiga's heart suffered a critical meltdown at his words.
Even though he already told her that he loved her, even though he had fought and killed and almost died for her, to hear these words from him made her heart swell with affection.
She hugged him back. Regardless of everything that already happened and still had to happen between them, they would alway be family to each other.
This much, they both knew beyond the shadow of a doubt.
They agreed to have breakfast together, provided that both got cleaned up first. Taiga returned home briefly to get a change of clothes, while Shirou took a much needed bath.
As he soaked in the hot water, he examined his body all over again. With the blood gone, there was no sign that he had been in a fight, no indication that he had been injured at all.
He had essentially bet his life exactly on this phenomenon, but that didn't mean it was any less flabbergasting.
Words couldn't describe how bad it hurt to have most of his major organs ruptured beyond recognition while being perfectly conscious, so he wouldn't go about doing it again if he could help it.
Still it was good to know that as long as he managed to sleep before dying, he would be back on his feet in the morning like nothing ever happened.
Satisfied that he understood his own powers better, Shirou got out of the water. He dried and dressed himself before getting out of the bathroom and into the kitchen.
Thanks to his high-level Cooking Skill, Shirou easily whipped up breakfast, before Taiga could return from her house, which she did right after he had done setting things up.
"I'm back!" she announced.
"Good timing. Come, take a seat. Let's talk while we eat."
And so they did. Well, Shirou talked for the most part. He told her about the Moonlit World and the creatures that lived in it. He told her of Magi and Dead Apostles, of the Church and Ghost Liners. He told her about the Reverse Side and the people who dwelled in it.
Yoruichi, Matsumoto, Saeko. People who saw that part of the world that others would rather believe a product of the imagination, because it was just as dangerous and it was terrifying.
For each subject he brought up, Taiga had dozen questions. Shirou did not have the answer to all of them.
His education in the supernatural was lacking. Kiritsugu did not want him to be a Magus and taught it only at his insistence.
Kiritsugu himself was a topic of great debate. His past was something that Shirou had learned only through Yoruichi and she did not paint a pretty picture.
The only thing that Shirou knew for certain was that Kiritsugu's dream was that of becoming a hero. How that led him to carry the moniker of Magus Killer Shirou did not know, but after the previous night he thought he had an idea.
By the end of it, it was nearly noon. Taiga was uncharacteristically silent.
"I think I understand now," she eventually said. Who would have ever thought there were things like that in the world? Who would have thought that her little brother was neck-deep into them? "There's no way I can convince you to quit that life, is there?"
"No," he shook his head. "I don't like fighting, but I know I must keep doing this. I want to become a hero and in order to do that, I must become stronger. There's no two ways about it."
She had asked, even though she knew the answer.
"Damn it," she sighed. "Why did you have to be so awesome?"
"I'm not!" he objected vehemently, blushing at the praise.
"Yes, you are, Mr. Wizard Hero."
"I'm not a hero, yet," he protested. "I've still got a long way to go."
"Pfft. Maybe not by your own standards, but you certainly are according to mine."
"W-what?" he sputtered. "I don't see what I did to-"
"You saved my life, Shirou. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty heroic to me."
"Well of course I did. What else was I supposed to do? It's not like there was choice in the matter."
Taiga frowned at his words.
"Shirou... are you an idiot?" she asked. "You say that you want to be a hero, but you don't seem to regard anything you do as particularly worthwhile. Last night Yoruichi told me that you saved her too from the people who tried to kill us. Why did you do that?"
"Because it was the right thing to do, of course."
"But you didn't have to. You could have walked away and have nothing to do with that problem."
"No, I couldn't. If you see someone in need of help, you help them. End of story."
"Shirou... ordinary people don't go out of their way to help someone else when they could risk their lives in the process. Heroes are precisely those who can look beyond their own safety and protect others. You already are a hero."
[TITLE UPGRADE: HERO IN TRAINING - HERO (Beginner)]
[Because of your deeds, some people acknowledge you as a Hero. You're only a beginner, though, and the road ahead is still long.]
[CHR+25]
[TITLE UPGRADE: CHARISMATIC (I) - CHARISMATIC (II)]
[Your intense Charisma (100) makes you stand out to the people around you. All women will consider you attractive regardless of their sexuality. "Presence Concealment" and "Stealth" Skill Trees have been locked out.]
"I'm... I'm a hero?" Shirou wondered, looking completely bewildered by the very notion. "That can't be."
"Actions speak louder than words, Shirou. Just like calling yourself a hero wouldn't make you one if you weren't, denying it doesn't make you any less so. Deal with it."
He couldn't deny what Taiga was saying. A hero is one who does heroic things. Even though he was trying to be one, Shirou never regarded anything he did as heroic. He simply did what he thought was right each time, wishing only for the people in front of him not to cry.
He never considered what opinion of his actions other people would have, but he now understood they would still acknowledge them regardless.
"Huh," was all that he could say in response.
"Why does look like you don't care at all?" Taiga asked. "Isn't it what you wanted?"
Shirou shook his head. "Honestly, I don't care. Wait, that's not what I mean. I want to be a hero, I just don't care if anyone think I am or not. However, I'm happy. Thank you."
"What for? I'm the one who's thankful."
"Well... Kiritsugu used to say that one person can't be a hero to everyone. That at some point you've got to choose whose hero you're going to be. No matter how many people I would have helped down the line, I just don't think I'd have been truly happy being anyone else's hero if I didn't get to be yours too. So... thank you."
Taiga suddenly felt incredibly lightheaded, and at the same time she there was a certain tightness in her throat. Her chest hurt as if her heart had shrunk a bit for no apparent reason, yet it was not an unpleasant sensation. Not at all.
Her vision swam a little and she had to grip the table to steady herself.
'I'm... I'm swooning,' she realized with a level of self-awareness unusual for her even when she was particularly clear-headed, but Shirou was looking at her so sincerely, with eyes filled with such affection for her that she found it difficult to breathe under his gaze. She could not mistake her emotions, not when they were so intense.
"Are you alright, Taiga?" he asked, seeing her lose her balance.
It was too much. Too much for her to endure any longer. She yearned to cross the gap that separated them... and so she did.
She reached across the table and yanked him forward by his shirt, causing him to yelp in surprise for the fraction of second that it took her to meet him halfway and smash her lips against his.
There was a moment of stunned hesitation and then he answered in kind. Gently grabbing her face with his small, strong hands he drew her in.
Their lips danced with each together awkwardly. It was her first kiss and it was different from how she had thought it would be on every level.
Yet, it was undeniable more than what she had ever hoped for. She had acted on an impulse and she had no idea what to do from there. Fortunately for her Shirou had more experience by far.
He pulled her delicately, twisting his body, lowering and laying her on the table, breaking the kiss in the process.
"Taiga…" he whispered looking down at her. She didn't think she ever heard her name being called that lovingly before. She found that she couldn't hold his gaze and she could look away either. "I love you."
If a human heart could collapse upon itself and the explode like a supernova, Taiga's heart would have.
"T-Then… make me yours, Shirou."
Shirou really didn't know what to think about himself and Taiga. Everything about the idea of them together was a mistake. Their ages, their legal standing to each other, their relationships up to that moment. Doing what he wanted went against every preconception he had.
Yet he could not deny what he felt of her.
Shirou wasn't any closer to figure out what love was and how it worked than the billions of men and women that came before him, but despite not understanding it that did not mean he didn't recognize it when he felt it.
He loved Taiga. He always did and always would. Then, wasn't it right to act upon those feelings? Society would have said no, but they had no say in the matter. Not anymore.
The only person whose opinion Shirou would heed at this junction was Saeko, and she had already given him the go ahead.
The last thing restraining him was Taiga herself. He never wanted to hurt her and he wouldn't have taken the next step with her if she wasn't fully aware of the implications of being with him beyond those that their status as guardian and ward implied.
Now Taiga knew about him, about his dream, about Magecraft and the Moonlit World.
When she reached across the table and kissed him, confirming her unchanged feelings Shirou threw all hesitations to the wind and kissed her back.
"T-Then… make me yours, Shirou."
Those words, laced with equal amounts of anticipation and fear shook his heart.
He wanted to ask her if she was certain, if she truly wanted this, but he would not look down upon the sheer courage it must have taken her to say those words.
He leaned down and kissed her once more.
With his twenty levels in Sexual Interactions over the equivalent of her couple of levels, Shirou might as well have been a master lover. His innate skills took over and his tongue brushed against her lips asking for admittance. She allowed it entry before she even realized it and by the time she understood what he had just done, his tongue was already working wonders into her mouth.
"H..mmm?" she moaned, while shivers went down her spine. 'F-French kiss?'
She hadn't expected that right off the bat. She had temporarily put out of her mind the knowledge that Shirou was more experienced in this sort of stuff than she was, even though she had witnessed him fucking his own sword teacher on this very same table.
'That's right. Shirou already has a woman,' she recalled. She had even told her that he would not break up with Saeko for her even though he loved her just as much. Yet, she clearly heard Saeko tell him that she wouldn't mind if he had other women.
Did it mean he would actually do it? Yeah it probably did.
Taiga did not like the idea very much.
However, her heart was brimming with such love that she didn't know what to do with herself, and while his tongue danced into her mouth and his hands roamed the edge of her breasts over her clothes, she understood that she did not care how many women he was with so long as she was one of them.
Abandoning all those minor, unimportant thoughts, she fully focused herself on him, wrapping her arms around his head and matching the fervor of his tongue with her own.
'I didn't know a kiss could feel this good,' she wondered in amazement, looking at him through half lidded eyes. Their mouths were making wet sloppy noises in the otherwise silent living room.
Shirou's hands caressed her sides, brushing against her breasts, then moved to her back holding her up while he ravished her lips.
She didn't even notice he had pushed the straps of her overall from her shoulders until he pulled her up and they fell down her arms. Why had she worn such an encumbering piece of clothing anyway?
Letting go of him for a moment, she slid her arms completely out of the straps and then embraced him again.
She didn't dare break the kiss. She wasn't sure she could look at him in the eye now that things had taken this turn. She was trying to be passionate even though she didn't know what to do, because the alternative was laying there like a dead fish.
So, with her eyes closed she let him do all of the work, while she busied herself kissing him with all the ardor she had for him.
He held her effortlessly, shifting her body as if it were made of feathers. At no point she was uncomfortable beyond the intense self-awareness the experience caused her, to the point that she only noticed that her had removed her overall when she felt a cold draft of air on her exposed legs.
"Ah…" she murmured, breaking off the kiss and looking down at her own body.
With the overall gone, she was only wearing her most familiar striped shirt and matching white panties. In her haste to return after changing clothes, she had forgone wearing a bra, and now that the thicker piece of clothing was crumpled on the floor, her turgid nipples were obviously poking at her shirt.
Her face turned an interesting shade of red and she looked away, but Shirou would have none of that. He took her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him.
"I want to see more of you, Fuji-nee."
His fingers trailed slowly against her legs, from her knees up to her thighs, until they found her shirt and pulled it up.
Taiga's hand stopped him right there.
"Let me…," she told him. With trembling hands she started to slowly pull up her shirt, showing hesitation only when she reached her breasts, at which point she clamped her arms down around them.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"... they are small," she murmured. "You won't like them."
Shirou let out a scoff that was half amused and half exasperated. He leaned in and touched his forehead to her, brushing his nose and cheeks against her in an affectionate gesture, not unlike that of two felines.
"There's not a single part of you I don't like, Taiga."
He moved his hands behind her back, trailing the tip of his fingers against her skin until he hooked them with her shirt. His intention was clear and feeling the tug of his hands - asking, but not demanding - Taiga let go of her fears.
Round globs of flesh bounced once she dared to pull the piece of clothing above them. Pink and perky, they stood proudly before Shirou's gaze. Taiga bit her lip, waiting for his judgment, which came a moment later as his hand slid against her side and came to cup one gently, thumb lazily making circles around the stiff cherry of her nipple.
"Ah!" she let out at the sheer intensity of the sensation it caused. "Shirou…"
"They are perfect, Taiga. Just like the rest of you."
"... smooth talker," she complained hollowly.
Shirou pulled her closer and kissed her once again. Their lips pushed against each other more gently than before, with both their attention focused on what he was doing with his hands.
Taiga's breast weren't as generous as Saeko, but they were no less glorious to hold. They radiated a warmth that made Shirou want to play with them, tease them.
And so he did.
His gentle touch deepend and his grip tightened until his fingers where pinching at her nipple.
"Hm...Ah~!" Taiga half cried and half moaned and her legs shifted against each other. "Shirou…. is a meanie."
He chuckled and resumed kissing her. His hand however abandoned her breasts and danced slowly towards her hips until they found the edge of her panties, then he changed trajectory toward the middle of her body.
He felt Taiga stiffen in his embrace and he moved to her thighs caressing them just as expertly a master pianist would play a symphony. Taiga pulled away from his lips with a sigh and without looking up at him she parted her legs with painful slowness, granting him access to her most guarded place and the secret she had been hiding for a while.
On the white cotton of her panties there was an unmistakable patch of arousal, which had soaked through the material and onto her inner thighs.
"Sorry. You must think me a horrible woman," she whispered into his arms.
"There's nothing horrible about you… except your table manners, sometimes."
She looked up at him, pouting at his comment. "My table manners are imppeehh-!"
Shirou's finger brushed against her panties, in the general area where her clitoris should be located. The sudden stimulation made her let out a breathy gasp and she pressed herself against Shirou, to conceal her reaction.
Taking advantage of her state, Shirou put pressure on the wet spot with the tip of two fingers making slow, circling motions.
"Hm. Ah… Shirou… this is… ohhhh…"
It was different from what it felt when she did it herself. Better in many ways and yet somewhat alien. She could not predict his touch and every moment of contact sent shocking ripples of pleasure across her body.
Did he realize what he was doing to her? She dared look up and found him utterly focused, not a single hint of self-satisfaction to be found on his face. The only sign that he was into her was the red flush on his face… and the visible bulge in his pants.
She wanted to reach for it, see how it would feel under her touch, if not for the fact that Shirou chose that moment to pull aside her panties and get direct access to the folds of her womanhood.
The touch of his skin against the place where only she had ever threaded sent shots of fire across her lower abdomen. Her legs squirmed, feet slipping over the table.
"Hmmm... ooohhhh…. Shirou, what are you doing to meeeh?"
Shirou pushed his head away so that he could look at her in the eyes. His gaze was burning with affection and desire. In that moment, Taiga wished he would never stop looking at her that way.
Shirou leaned in, but rather than her lips, he aimed at her breasts. His mouth found one of her nipples and clamped on it. At the same time, his fingers parted her folds and intruded upon her innermost place.
"Ooaaah!" Taiga cried, throwing back her head under the combined assault at her intimate spots. Shirou timed the flick of his tongue around his nipples to be always out of sync with the thrust of his fingers inside her pussy.
Taiga could only squirm and clamp her legs around his arm to hold herself steady, while more and more of her arousal dripped along her thighs and onto the table.
To think that they would end up doing such a thing in there, a place where they regularly met as a family… In a way, there was a certain sense of vindication. On this table she had watched Shirou take another woman… it was only right that she would now reclaim it as her own.
This was her home… and he was her little brother. Come hell or high water, this would not change, even if they were about to become full fledged lovers.
On that thought, the pressure that had been building inside her reached the point of no return and with a throaty moan she finally climaxed.
"S-Shiroooooou! N-ahhhHH!"
She trashed involuntarily in his embrace while her pussy clenched hard around his fingers. For an unknowable time she rode the waves of her orgasms, until she was gently lowered down back on solid ground with her breathing labored like she had run for miles without moving from that spot.
It was so that she found herself lying fully on the table, with her legs dandling partly out of its edge. Shiro was above, looking down at her like she was perfection incarnate.
She had to sacrifice many things to be with him like him; her morals chief among them. She did not regret a thing. She couldn't, while he looked at her like that.
"Shirou… I want to be your woman," she all but begged.
"Taiga… are you sure about this?"
She nodded. Never before in her life she had wished something so strongly, so surely. She could no longer bring herself to care about other women and the norms of society. What did it all matter in the face of this, of him?
"Yes, I do," she confirmed one last time.
Shirou lowered his head and touched his lips to hers one more time. It was the softest of their kisses thus far and left Taiga wanting for more. However, Shirou had other intentions as he moved down, kissing her neck, her collarbone, her breasts, her navel, until his journey took him to the place where her sweet nectar was still oozing.
"Shirou…?" she asked, both expectantly and worriedly.
Shirou leaned in and found the gate which his fingers had only recently threaded past. Without warning or hesitation he placed his lips on it and started kissing that spot with through devotion.
"O...ohhhhhhh?" Taiga gasped in utter shock, hips buckling in response to the stimulation she was being subjected to, held in place only by Shirou's firm grasp around her thighs. Her arms sought something to latch onto, but the table didn't offer any such thing.
Thus her hands latched into Shirou's hair and at the same time her legs wrapped around his kneeling form.
The redhead was unbothered by all this. His focus was entirely on the savoring of Taiga's womanhood and the sweet nectar distilled in there. He drank it greedly, without wasting a single drop, without missing a single spot.
Taiga for her part couldn't even breathe. She was transfixed, mouthing in a silent gasp, eyes wide open in stunned amazement. Only the approaching of her second climax shook her out of her trance and by that point the only thing she could do was let out an unintelligible moan and release another wave of arousal right into Shirou's eagerly awaiting mouth.
"Iiihiihhh! Sh-Sh-Shirouuuhhhh!"
Her whole body tensed until all strength left her and she slumped bonelessly on the table, breathing in short gasps meant to restore her oxygen levels.
They had yet to get to the main course and she was already finding it difficult to grasp the intensity of the act. Why had she been hesitating doing this with Shirou? In her current state of mind she couldn't recall a single good reason.
She was brought out of reverie by the movement on the bottom of her vision. Shirou had stood up and was in the process of removing his shirt. She couldn't help but licking her lips at the sight of his chiseled chest. Then he unbuckled his pants and freed his erect manhood, standing proud and strong because of her.
It was the first dick she ever saw so she didn't have any frame of reference. Yet, she was intimately familiar with the size of her pussy and she knew that she would be stretched beyond what she had experienced until then.
Shirou stepped forth and lined his cock to the entrance of her drenched womanhood. Stopping only to look at her in the eyes before taking this last, irreversible step. She reached out to hold his face with her hands, a longing smile full affection on her face.
"Yes," was her answer to his unspoken question.
Slowly but surely, Shirou pressed his dick against her pussy and felt her folds give way to his invasione.
Taiga gritted her teeth, feeling the anticipated strain of her inner walls as well as the pressure on the barrier of her maidenhood. There was a brief moment of tension and then that last obstacle between their full joining was finally broken down.
"T-Taiga," he grunted as he held himself from moving to give her time to adapt.
Taiga inhaled and exhaled slowly, untightening the muscles that had been clenched from fear of the unknown. The pain of her lost virginity receded, helped in no small part by the constant lubrication of her intense arousal.
"Make love to me, Shirou. Make me yours once and for all."
There was no need for further invitations. Taiga's exquisite tightness beckoned to Shirou and he started moving his hips back and forth with slow thrust at first, which only increased in speed as time passed.
Shirou grabbed Taiga's hips and turned her on her side, holding her leg over his shoulder and the other under his arms, while his hips crashed against her pelvis with relentless abandon as if trying to get every last inch of himself inside her, to claim every step of the sacred territory he could reach.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" Taiga gasped with each of his thrusts. She grabbed the edge off the table to steady herself and watched as her body rocked under Shirou's lovely assault. Her breasts bounced back and forth and without thinking she grabbed one to pinch her own nipple like she was used to do in her loney sessions adding yet another layer of stimulation.
There was no other similarity to her private masturbation moments, though.
Right then, she could feel every inch of Shirou's manhood and manliness. With every thrust of his hips he claimed another spot in her body, rubbing nexuses of pleasure she didn't even know existed. With every moan he caused her to let out, another little piece of her heart was conquered.
She was really, truly, undeniably becoming his. The depth of her womanhood was already preparing to receive his mark, even though she had never experienced it she knew she wanted it.
That same, familiar pressure built up again inside her, but before she could release it she felt him gasp and tense inside her. "Taiga!" he called out a second before a stab of heat spread through her pussy, advancing unchallenged to the very core of her femininity where it expanded to fill every single part her.
"Oh my God! Yes…. SHIROOOU! YEEEEES!"
Her third climax overtook her. The most powerful thing she had ever experienced in her entire life. Had her legs been free to move the would have wrapped around his torso to keep him firmly lodged inside her until the last of his seed had soaked into her very being.
Instead she had to hold herself firmly on the table as his hold on her was unshakable. His ejaculation seemed to go on forever, each spurt adding another layer of whiteness to her body and her mind.
At last, both of them came down from the high that had seized them, slowly losing the tension in their bodies. Shirou let go of her legs and lowered himself on her, laying his head on her breasts, while Taiga wrapped her arms around him to hold him close.
They were both sweaty and breathing raggedly, yet they had never been more at peace than in that moment.
Eventually Shirou looked up at her and she down to him. A moment of complete, unrestrained understanding passed between them.
Taiga smiled and craned her neck to lay a kiss on his head, before relaxing back against the cool wood of the table.
In doing so, her eyes fell on the picture of Kiritsugu up against the wall and she felt a strange mixture of emotions.
'Sorry Kiritsugu,' she thought somewhat amused. 'I don't think this was what you had in mind when you asked me to take care of your son.'
At that point, she couldn't even recall that at one point she had been crushing on the father of her current lover. The memory of those unrequited feelings had been completely drowned by her love for Shirou.
She didn't know where this relationship would go. Really she couldn't even begin to predict it.
What she did know for certain was that as long as she walked by his side, she would never regret it.
XXX
AN: Well, it's finally here, the long awaited Shirou x Taiga scene. I don't think there's many of that around that aren't part of a crack fic. I hope you found it suitably romantic and erotic. I put my heart into it.
See you next month for another update. Make sure to leave a review as well. Your opinion is always appreciated.
Additionally if you want to support me as a writer consider visiting my Pa treon account at "pa treon [dotCOM] / ichaichasennin"