capeandcowl2020 | Open Post 002

"It sounds too good to be true." Rin's a realist, so it takes her less than a minute to come back to the grim situation. "You're going to drug me and carry me off somewhere, aren't you?"

Desperately she wants to believe in him, to think they have a chance at building a home and that when she wakes up in the morning it'll be to the scent of tea in the air and not one of blood. That she can be within his arms in the comfort of their home and not through the skies of some other unknown country.

"It's better to be honest with me upfront. That way whenever you do it, I won't feel betrayed."

"Don't--" His voice catches.

He wants to tell her not to doubt him about something so important. But he's still the same broken Archer who has wasted promises to her so many times in the past, so how can he ask that of her?

"Hmph." He looks away for a moment. "I am being honest with you, Rin." And then he looks back at her. His eyes are weary but sincere. "There's no point in racing about the world being heroes if you aren't happy."

Whether he's happy is the most insignificant thing possible. But her? That's another story.

"That's what I've finally decided. That's my honest decision."

"So you're just going to give up everything you've known for me without putting up a fight?"

It bothers her to see him settling like this. "If you're worried about me getting hurt while you're off, that won't happen. I, I don't mind waiting here while you travel yourself. We can still see each other every few months, right?"

That thought bothers her, but it gets under her skin less than Archer sacrificing himself for her.

"Everything I've known?"

He looks a little lost, gazing at her. How does he begin to explain? He's never lived with another at his side for this long, even in such a patchwork way as this. In a sense--

"Rin, don't talk to me about 'everything you've known.' It's a naive thing for you to do, when you should know that's what you've become." He speaks as straightforwardly as possible, to make the words seem ordinary instead of some kind of confession.

"If you're going to say things like that, you need to follow them up with a kiss."

She scolds him for his confession still. Naturally she's never pleased with anything, even if she's red in the face not due to anger, but because of his roundabout confession.

"You know, that's all I've ever wanted to hear from you. That I'm more important than, than, than you know!"

His breath hitches in his throat. "More important? You aren't, you can't be--" But he looks more and more distressed as he says it. "You're one woman, one beautiful and perfect woman, so I shouldn't, but--"

His mouth twists. "Hmph. This was never my world anyway. When it's treated you like this, I owe it nothing."

Archer steps forward, rests his hand against the side of her head, and leans down to kiss her.

What distance there was between the two was closed in Rin's eagerness for this moment, as her forehead comes threateningly close to his own. It would be typical of her to mess this up, to give them both a headache over something that was meant to bring happiness, but luck was on her side.

Archer thought of her as a woman. A beautiful and perfect woman. His woman, she wants to insist.

"We're staying," he murmurs to her as he pulls just a little bit away. "We'll stay in this stupid little town, and I'll destroy anyone who gets in our way."

He isn't smiling; his eyes are serious and full of sincerity. "You've been what I fight for for years now, you know. I should ask, though. I spent a long time chasing stupid dreams, so is it all right if I chase your heart now instead?"

"My heart?" Placing a hand against her chest tenderly. "I don't really understand what it is you're going on about. I mean, it's alright for us to kiss and for us to live together. Now you're promising we can stay here and that you want something so undervalued in return?"

Nothing about Archer makes sense to her these days. Was she having trouble keeping reality from the fiction they've had to weave from "home" to "home" or was it that she was just outright tired when it came to running now?

Archer has always been someone she would give herself entirely for. Nothing about that has changed in the years she's come to known him. The boy who never held happiness in his hands deserved it, so if hunting down people to save the day makes him happier than she ever could, who was she to argue otherwise?

Her heart though.

"Ah, I get it now. You're asking me to give up my life in a roundabout way. Magi don't live very long lives, so you only have to humor me for a few more years at the latest. If you can't wait though, um, I guess I could consider it."

It's not that any of this makes him happy. He's forgotten how to be happy, if he ever knew. When there's a smile on Rin's face, when he's at her side and she's content, when he tends to her needs in this peaceful town, sometimes he thinks he might remember, but it's fleeting. It's not really any of that. It's just that he can't disentangle the dreams he once followed from Rin anymore. If fighting to save people is what makes a hero, and she's the most precious person in this world, then shouldn't he stay at her side?

He thinks that probably doesn't make sense if he examines it too closely. But he just won't examine it too closely anymore.

Especially if she's going to say troubling things like that.

"I see." His cheeks are flushed. "You'll continue to have absurd misapprehensions. Rin, I'm not asking you to die." He reaches for her hand. "I'm asking you to live and let me live at your side. And I'll have you know that I refuse to let you be bound by such nonsense as 'magi don't live very long lives.' I'm going to look forward to a time when I stop dying my hair so we can both be old and grey together."

He's saying impossible things, but he doesn't care. He'll keep saying impossible things for her.

"So we both be old and grey together?" She repeats in her pure shock. Her hand is enveloped by his own and he's expressing a wish to grow old with her. No one else, just her. "That's something married couples are supposed to say to each other. I've never heard of anyone say it without vows in place so you shouldn't say those things unless you--!"

Realizing quickly what she's said, she pulls her hand back without hesitation.

"I wasn't implying that at all! I was just, just, I was just saying I've never heard anyone talk that way unless they're betrothed and we're certainly not involved in anything like that!"

"Ah--" When she pulls her hand away, he starts to follow it with his own. Only after a second does he stop himself, his cheeks now flushed.

Archer looks down at his feet. But his gaze keeps going to hers instead. How strange. "Those vows would be really trivial to us, Rin. Who promises 'in sickness and in health' when they've already followed someone to another world? Besides--"

He looks up again, the blush rising more fiercely on his face. "There's no ring in the world that would be fine enough for you."

Just like there's nothing she can give him in return that can best his heart. Keeping her thoughts unspoken on that matter, her own gaze goes to the floor only to return to his too.

"Right, I know it was stupid to say, but we're already living as though we're a married couple. So why even bother with pointless vows. Besides, you can't get sick or die, right?"

"I can't get sick so long as I'm acting as your Servant," he replies, frowning a little at the sudden shift to a more practical topic. "But if I die--well, I don't know if I'd come back anymore, but if either of us die we'd wind up back in the hands of the government, Rin. So I can't let that happen to you."

Wait, wasn't this about him a moment ago?

"That's a vow I'll make. I refuse to let you be hurt or die."

If only she can teach him to be as selfish as she can be at times. When he vows that much, it breaks her heart just a little. He can be assertive when it came to protecting her from being hurt all while being the one to hurt her.

"I know. I know we can get hurt because if we do, who knows what will happen? It's scary, but I think ordinary people don't live their lives entirely in fear so we should be capable of it. It'll be hard, but I believe we can do it. I, um--" She stammers a bit now as she tries to say something brave. "I believe in you, Archer, because that's what being in l-wellyouknow!"

It's impossible to teach Archer to be selfish at this point. Or rather, it's impossible to teach him to be selfish about anything other than heroism, self-destruction, and now--Rin's happiness as well.

He's well past the point where he could learn to live for himself. But maybe he can manage to live for Rin, he's thinking now as he stares at her, even if it seems like a terrible and forbidden thought.

He's thinking that when she blurts out such things, so with his eyes wide, he grabs her and pulls her close, his hand cradling around the back of her head to keep her there. "You're saying such ridiculous things. I think you should be able to keep saying ridiculous things, so I'll protect you without any fear."

"You're not scared of getting hurt?"

He's holding her and it's enough to soothe the creeping paranoia, something she never thought much of until the past couple years. His hand shields her brain from those thoughts so she leans into it to really feel his fingers slipping into her hair.

"If you're not scared, then I'll draw strength from your bravery. That way we both can rest when it's needed and not one of us is shouldering the burden all the time."

Back to saying ridiculous things. He gave her permission to do so, didn't he?

How can she possibly draw strength from someone as broken as him? It must be because she's Rin Tohsaka, and once she sets her mind to something, impossible things aren't impossible any longer.

Archer's hand stays on her head; his fingers stroke her hair.

"That's fine. This is a rotten world and it's best if the few bright things in it don't burn out. You're the brightest of them, so I'll shield you especially."

He's smiling now as he speaks. How stupid of him to take so long to realize it: protecting Rin above all makes perfect sense when he puts it like that.

"I'm only bright because of the flame you ignite within me, Emiya."

Now she's being completely ridiculous. Soaking up the attention he lavishes upon her body, her smile just might outshine his at this rate.

"Geez, I didn't think I would be so happy over news like this. Just getting to stay here means a lot to me, but then you did all of this additional stuff."

He shakes a little, even with his arms around her, when she calls him by his name. It's a name he's grown to hate, but when she says it, it sounds filled with love.

Maybe he can be someone who loves her, so long as she speaks his name like that.

"Additional stuff...? I just told you how I feel, Rin."

"That's rare from you. I'm not sure how to treasure a moment, but I'm going to try to remember this one. If I engrave it in my mind, then when I die it better be one of the things I see during those vivid flashbacks."

Because speaking of death is so romantic.

"Oh, but if you need a new name to remain here..."

"I'll give you more moments to treasure." He's not trying to be romantic. He's just swearing himself to her. All of himself. All that's left. "We won't need new names or anything."

He holds her close.

"I'll just get rid of anyone who threatens you. That's all."

"Um." Now she feels strange in where she was taking that line of thought. So close to asking him to marry her and now she's back to nothing. "That's such a violent way of thinking, but I'll accept it if it means being with you."

Isn't that what love is all about? Making sacrifices and learning to live alongside someone else? It might have taken her a few years to grow used to the comforting presence of another individual, but now that she has, the thought of being without frightens her more than it ever did before.

To marry her? That's a bit much to expect. Marriage is something normal people do, normal unbroken people who have a self left to pledge to their lover. Even now, Archer can't dream of promising something like that. He can only give her what's left of him.

"Hah, I am a violent man." His smile for her is weary. "But I'll be gentle for you."

Rin has always aimed high when she can win, but since victory isn't yet secured in her mind, she dismisses the thought with a nod.

"I'm a violent woman so it'll be alright if you need to treat me roughly."

Open Post 002

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