Zero
The seat wasn't very comfortable. She squirmed and squirmed but couldn't quite find that perfect position. Perhaps just a bit more, Illya thought, as she shifted to the left.
Only for a warm hand to descend upon her head and give it a reassuring pat.
"It'll just be a few minutes," Shirou whispered into her ear, tickling it with his breath. He probably didn't mean anything by it, but she couldn't help but shift away even further instinctively, shooting her younger brother a sour, accusatory look.
"You're doing it again." she said.
He acknowledge it with a rueful smile and backed off, raising his hands in a gesture of defeat. "Guilty as charged. But maybe you'll start to miss being treated like a kid, after this."
"Nope!" Of course she would, but stupid Shirou couldn't know about it. Illya twisted away with a harrumph. She tossed her hair over her shoulder, as she'd practiced in the mirror back home, and did her best impression of a royal pout. Belatedly she realized it was impossible to see Shirou's crestfallen reaction from this position, but it was also too late to drop the act and still retain the upper hand.
After a few minutes of stalemate, Illya's neck was beginning to hurt. Or at least, it would've hurt if she could still feel pain. At the very least, it'd gone numb, much like the tips of her fingers had, the previous week. The fact that the office wasn’t very well ventilated didn’t help much.
Thankfully, Shirou's dumb placation from before proved accurate. A door opened, a chair was pulled back, someone sat on it and audibly released the day's tension from their body, and then scooted forward, grating wooden legs against wooden floor.
"Did I interrupt something?" was the stranger's introduction.
"No." Illya was the first to reply, before Shirou could get a word in and say something stupid. She snapped her head back and pretended she hadn't just been caught in an embarrassing position. "I was just... stretching."
"Stretching," said the bespectacled woman, who was leaning on the desk with her hands clasped under her chin, watching her guests with something approaching amusement.
Illya nodded. "Stretching."
She turned her head towards Shirou, who shrugged. "Gotta keep those muscles moving."
"...right." The woman dropped the topic as if it was the previous year's headline on a newspaper blowing through a deserted alleyway. "Well then, if you two are finished with the calisthenics, you can decide who's waiting outside."
Shirou started up a protest that was aborted before it could even be born by an upraised finger and a no-nonsense attitude. "It's threatening to me," the woman explained. "If I'm confronted by a pair of strange magi, even in my own office. For peace of mind I'll speak to one of you, and one of you only. Normally I'd suggest the shorter one run around a bit, but since she seems to be the brains of this operation, maybe it'd be best if you went to buy drinks. We'll be talking, and it won't be a ten minute interview."
Shirou gazed helplessly at Illya, who stared at the woman with furrowed brows, receiving nothing in response. After a moment of thinking, she arrived at her answer:
"Tea," she said firmly. "Darjeeling." She didn't have to mention that bags were a no-no. Shirou had learned that one the hard way.
"Um, I don't think they have that-."
"And one for me," said the woman, eyes meeting Illya's. "There's a small place just down the road. Four blocks down. Don't worry, it'll be a pleasant walk."
Even Shirou could see where he was outmatched. He left like a sad dog. Illya wanted very badly to laugh and reassure him, but she couldn't lose face here.
"You're a hard woman to find," she said as soon as she was sure Shirou was out of earshot.
The aforementioned woman gave a half-hearted shrug. "Only to those looking. But you seem to have managed it."
"I had help."
The woman cocked her head to the side. "Was it useful?"
Short answers weren't her kind of thing, but Illya bore with it. The woman's stare was uncomfortable in many ways. They hadn't agreed to anything yet but she could already sense a hunger in those eyes, as if the woman was staring right through her skin and into her failing internal organs.
"Not especially. I think you let me find you, Aozaki Touko."
Touko smirked. "And why would I be interested in the princess of a dead family, Illyasviel von Einzbern?" She sat up, straightening her back and pulling a cigarette out of her breast pocket in one smooth motion. She plopped it into her mouth and made to light it with fire before noticing Illya's frown. Reconsidering, she opted to keep it merely a prop.
Illya debated beating around the bush some more, but decided against it. Just being here was making her nervous, and she wanted this done as fast as possible. Talking to a Sealing Designate was dangerous for a Magus, doubly so for a girl who wouldn't be missed at the end of the day. The Mage's Association was at least predictably evil, though less inclined to offer a good deal.
"I'm a Holy Grail," she said.
Touko's cigarette fell out of her mouth. She didn't even notice. "Run that by me again?"
"A Holy Grail. My body serves as a vessel to revive the Third Magic. Not a completely, but-."
"No, no." Touko raised her hand. "That's enough. I suspected something along those lines. The Fuyuki incident was a hotly debated topic in London, or so my contact said. You must be what went wrong."
"Yes."
"Which would make you a homunculus, likely with an inconvenient expiry date, because the Einzbern just had to experiment."
"...yes." It was almost scary how fast the woman connected the dots. Illya was glad she couldn't shudder anymore. This was possibly the first time the princess had been put in a situation where she held no power at all, and it wasn't pleasant.
"And," said Touko as she smiled sweetly. "You think I can help."
Illya's lack of reply was enough of an answer.
Touko realized she was all but draped over her desk, and straightened, leaning back into her chair. "Well, I can't fix you. It's not exactly my area of expertise, and your soul is just as much the problem as your body." Something in Illya's stomach seemed to become three times heavier. "But I can probably give you time. More than you have now. A decade at least. That is what you're here for, isn't it?"
Now Illya was as light as a feather, yet she felt herself becoming more brittle by the second, hooked onto the Aozaki's every word. Six months ago she wouldn't have been this excited, but in that time Illya had grown to understand just how much she wanted to stay alive. She tried to come up with something witty or sharp, in true magus fashion, but she could only summon up a pitiful request: "Do it."
"Now, now," Touko picked up the fallen cigarette and waved it around lazily. "Don't be hasty. I haven't named my price yet, and it's going to be high. Being the only one in the world who can do what I do means I'm free to gouge you as much as I please."
Perhaps it was just her imagination, but Illya could've sworn that the temperature of the room was higher now than it had been earlier. It would explain why her heart was beating twice as fast, and why beads of sweat were slowly running down her back. She debated refusing. There was still time. But Rin had worked hard getting her here. Shirou was giving it his all to make every day a wonderful one. She wanted to live, to laugh, and to spend more time with him.
Even so, a magus does not fear death.
"I know your price," Illya said, faking the bravery she couldn't feel. "And I know you'll accept, too. I'm the last of my kind. My body is unique. You'll never see another like it. Someone like you won't turn down a chance to study me. Not if you're half the magus I think you are."
The redhead nodded, the corners of her mouth curling up. "You're right," she said. "But also wrong. Do you know what you're signing up for, Einzbern? You will be mine for a week, to explore and use as I wish. I won't be merciful, girl. A magus has no need for such things. You might not even survive with yourself intact. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy what time you have left in peace?"
"No." Illya didn't even have to think about it. She stood from her chair and paused for a moment, realizing the desk was too tall. She turned, with some effort pulled her chair forward, then clambered on top of it. With the added height, she could slam her palm onto Touko's desk with something resembling authority. "It wouldn't."
At that precise moment, the door opened and Shirou all but fell in, clutching a plastic bag in his arms, panting and sweating, looking like he'd just run the whole four blocks. "I – hah – got the tea." he breathed. "Illya, you okay?"
For a moment the room was silent, and then, almost audibly, the tension evaporated. Illya half-giggled as she got off the chair. "Yes. Now that you're here. Shirou, why don't we go make the tea? Aozaki will let us use her kitchen while she pens the contract."
"So it's a deal? She can really help?" Shirou turned, about to say more, but Touko raised a hand.
"Save the thanks for later. Kitchen's on the right. Excuse the mess; I usually cook for one."
For the next few minutes Illya lied to herself, pretending she wasn't about to sign over her soul to a demon for a week. Shirou, perhaps sensitive enough to read her mood, didn't speak too much as they borrowed Aozaki Touko's dingy kitchen. Besides tea, Shirou had bought some apples, and took the time to show Illya how to slice them up and make little rabbits with the peels. But after a short fifteen minutes, they were called back in.
"Mm. Not bad." Touko munched on a wedge as she sipped at her tea, waiting for them to read it over. "Well? Is it to your liking? I tried to keep it simple, since you two aren't exactly Clock Tower material."
Illya had to ask for Shirou's help to translate a select few kanji she wasn't familiar with, but after a few minutes of reading she could understand the whole thing. It was fairly solid. An agreement to stay for a week at Aozaki's and participate in her experiments, and the puppeteer would fashion prosthetic organs to prolong Illya's lifespan. Standard clauses preventing serious or permanent injury were there, and even a 'safe word' clause that would allow Illya to opt out of the contract at any time if she so desired. This was without mentioning the generous number of breaks she'd been given to spend as she wished.
"Should we bring in Tohsaka?" Shirou whispered to her, as if Aozaki couldn't hear everything.
Illya shook her head and steeled her resolve. "No. I'll do it. Onii-chan, we can leave in seven days. Stay in a hotel here. I'll visit you or call when I can." Compared to a weekend in the woods with a pack of ravenous wolves, this would be child's play.
Touko handed her a pen. Without hesitation, Illya jabbed it into her finger and quickly signed her name in blood next to Touko's own.
It was done.
Shirou took a long time to leave, like an overprotective mother hen. As his face vanished behind the door, leaving only two people in the small office, Illya felt a twinge of fear in the pit of her stomach.
A pair of hands closed around Illya's shoulders, squeezing lightly. A warmth pressed against her back, and breath tickled her right ear.
"Your safe word is 'vermillion'." Touko said, her barely restrained excitement clearly audible. "We're going to have so much fun together."
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Why yes, this is a multi-chapter piece of soon-to-be erotic fiction. I started writing a one-shot and then it decided to turn into a whole story of its own. Please excuse the lack of lewd in the prologue; it will be delivered in pieces for your viewing pleasure. In fact, chapter one has already been finished, so expect to see it sooner rather than later.
Happy holidays, Beast's Lair.
(no i didn't accidentally post it in the rp section first who do you think i am)
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Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
