A Third Option
“What do you want first? A bath, dinner, or—
—Sella?”
Shirou froze, completely immobilized by shock.
Ha ha, this is a dream right?
When he thought about it, the sudden thunderstorm was obviously impossible, given the mild afternoon weather, and the clear, cloudless sky. The ____ before him now was just the result of his instincts going wild, spiralling into a delusion.
Yeah... I probably slipped and fell somewhere. Issei will wake me up in the nurse’s office, so this is definitely a dream.
There was something in front of him that he could not acknowledge. That ____ which could not be real. Because of that, he was relieved to have reached his conclusion. Free from his denial, he gave a careless answer.
“It’s a hard decision. But, that dress looks good on her, so then... I’ll have Sella?”
Ah ye of little faith, you should have held on to your fears.
“Noooooooo! Shirou! I won’t allow it! I understand the desires of a high school boy, but there are limits to what this family can allow!”
The calm vanished, as the winter storm raged in the room. Irisviel’s countenance was that of a fierce god, unleashing rage against a mortal’s defiance. Against such a foe, there was no chance of escape nor resistance. Shirou’s face was frozen into a carefree smile, paralyzed by terror.
In a smooth twirl, Leysritt flung a cushion into Irisviel’s face, and then thrust Sella and Shirou toward the entrance. They landed in an ungainly tangle, but for different reasons, didn’t think to immediately remove themselves.
“Go now, I’ll hold her off.”
At that command, Shirou moved. There was now a chance of escape, and no time to waste. He threw open the door and scooped Sella into his arms. After they were safely out of the property, he looked back inside.
The stolid hero flashed him a wink and a thumbs up. This was surely the final loyalty of a maid to her master.
“Shirou, Sella, congratulations.” Her last words rang out in a lazy monotone.
She was swept away in the snowstorm, as the great Siberian predator pounced. Shirou ran from the house, Sella in his arms. He did not look back.
For a long time, he did not think. He charged onward in a straight path through Miyama, cutting through the air. Stopping would mean nothing short of death. The dream had become a nightmare, and he could only keep running from the inhuman terror behind him.
Sella, on the other hand, had been doing nothing but thinking. To be embarrassed like this, I’ll have to leave the house— no, the country. Ahh, I can’t face Shirou and Illya after this. Eh? Wait, Shirou, Shirou. Shiroushiroushiroushiroushirou.
It’s all his fault.
“Shirou! Stop this, put me down!”
He stopped his sprint abruptly and unsteadily lowered Sella’s legs until she was standing beside him. His breathing was heavy, and his body was too exhausted for him to stand. Shirou kept on his feet by bracing himself against Sella’s shoulder.
“Where is mother? Are we safe?” His words were punctuated with deep rasping breaths.
“Shirou, I’m asking this to make sure, but weren’t you paying any attention at all to where you were going?”
He took a look around the area. They were on a normal looking street, next to a towering mansion. In the distance, the Emiya household was about two-hundred meters away. They were not nearly far enough.
“Shirou.” Her voice was devoid of humor. “What were you thinking? Such a joke from mistress Irisviel is natural, but I expected better from you.”
“Ah, erm, I wasn’t really thinking about what I was saying, so it really just slipped out and—”
“Just slipped out?! The humiliation I just went through turned into this because you couldn’t hold your tongue?”
“Well, no, that’s...” Reflecting on it, he really hadn’t been thinking.
“Guwaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Maids and children that don’t listen must be punished!” The faraway voice of a demon filled the air.
The pair, bonded in their doom, searched for a last chance of survival. They could not escape into the shopping district, with Sella wearing such an outfit. They could not hide in the open streets, nor could they return to the house. That left them a single pathway.
“The wall! Sella, let’s climb the wall!”
“Are you an idiot? The wall is too high, and there’s no way to climb up. Shirou, we’re better off not not running anymore.” A poor maid’s fate could not be changed. Sella had learned that lesson countless times that day.
“We can do it! Get on my shoulders and go over, and then pull me up.”
“No, it’s enough. You’ve caused enough problems for me today. Let’s just explain things to mistress Irisviel and—”
“Sella, if we don’t use this chance to escape, what was Liz sacrificed for? More than that, I have to take responsibility for my words, so I have to make sure that at least you can get away!”
A pink blush suffused into her face. “What are you doing, saying things like that? If it matters so much to you, then fine, I’ll expect no less from you. Let’s escape together.”
He knelt down, and she sat on his shoulders. Then, she reached up for the wall, and caught the edge.
“Argh! Shirou you idiot! Why couldn’t you be a bit taller! I can’t get up like this.”
“It’s not my fault,” he needled in return, “If I’m too short, it must be because my meals weren’t nutritious enough.”
“You cook your own meals!”
“Only for the last two years! Pay me back for those other years of bad health!”
Beneath her, Shirou was experiencing something strange, though not unpleasant. He had forgotten to note that Sella was not wearing a skirt, and so found his head surrounded by uncovered white flesh, and his vision covered by the apron hanging from her waist. Adrenaline had blocked his attention to the state of her dress, but now his mind was becoming inflamed for another reason altogether. As she tried frantically to get a grip on the wall, her movements caused her thighs to rub against his face, and he could hardly ignore the soft feeling of—
What am I thinking, at a time like this?
Somewhere in the distance, Irisviel was closing on them. There was really no time for any distractions.
“Sella, get ready. I’m going to jump, so make it in one try.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m going to fall!”
“It’s fine! I’ll do it properly, so you definitely won’t fall!”
“Urgh, alright! I’m ready! Let’s do it!”
Ah, heh, Sella, that sounds like something else entirely.
He put all of his power into his legs, and managed to jump about forty centimeters upward. At the peak of the jump, Sella wrapped her arms over the wall, and clambered up to the top. From there, she extended her arms to Shirou, and then managed to pull him up with all of her weight. In that last moment, they caught a glimpse of Irisviel bursting out of the house, dragging Leysritt behind her. And then they took an awkward tumble into the Edelfelt mansion’s backyard.
~{-}~
“Shirou, Shirou! Are you alright?”
He woke from his dream to a bright white light. He was resting on something soft, and someone was calling out to him.
“Ah, Issei, did I hit my head or something?” He replied groggily.
“Issei? Shirou, could it be that you’re seriously injured?”
Ah.
It would have been too convenient if it really was all just a dream. Rather than Issei, it was Sella who was calling out to him. The white light was the bright sunlight, reflected from her apron and her exposed skin. His head was on her lap, and it throbbed from the impact of his landing.
“Sella, huh.”
“Yes, Shirou.” She wore a gentle smile, showing a mixture of relief and concern.
“We’ll have to apologize to Miyu and Luvia for trespassing, I think.”
“Stupid, why are you worrying about that now?”
“We’ve already gotten away from mom, right? So it’s natural to apologize to the owners of the house.”
Sella tapped her fingers together, turning her face away from him. “I-idiot. It’s something else. You haven’t taken responsibility for what you said before.”
“Eh? It’s not like I can do more to calm mom down, so we have to wait in here until she runs out of energy.”
“I’m not talking about that. I- I’m asking you, no, I’m telling you to follow through on picking me.”
“Huh? Wait wait wait!”
In a single smooth movement, Sella pulled his face up with her hand and captured his lips in hers. His muffled protests gave way to a slow groan that sent a pleasant heat into his face. The tips of her hair tickled his face, and his vision was filled with white.
She pulled back from him, allowing his head to fall back onto her thighs. The scandalously short apron had already been removed, and was spread on the ground below them. If he was driven crazy by that feeling before, now he was even closer to losing his mind. Her face was cherry red, but her gaze was fixed on him. He could feel the warmth of her flesh beneath his head, and his lips burned with the feeling of that kiss.
He wanted to ____. He was going to ____. This feeling would not pass until he was able to release it all inside ____.
Something cracked inside Emiya Shirou’s brain.
Sorry Sella, I can’t hold back any longer.
The gun in his brain fired. He wrapped an arm around Sella’s waist, and pulled himself up to her face. They were a centimeter apart, so close that their noses were nearly touching. He could feel the warmth radiating from her face, and the steam of her breath lightly tickled his cheeks.
“I guess it can’t be helped,” he said. “I have to take responsibility, right?
“Yeah, a good-for-nothing like you should at least do that much.” Her words were sharp, but softly spoken.
“Hmm, then I wonder what a good-for-nothing like me should do now?”
“That’s—”
Before she could finish, he covered her lips with his own. It was a simple forceful move, filled with a pure feeling of lust. Any thought of consequences was gone. He discarded decorum, shame, and concern. Instead, he focused on moving his mouth on hers, and pulled her closer to him until their bodies were pressed together. He did not pull back until his lungs began screaming for air.
They broke apart, each filled with the scent and taste of the other. The heat of their connection lingered on their skin. In the brief respite, Shirou broke the silence.
“Sella, is this okay with you?”
He would stop there, depending on her answer. The last remnant of his self-control was about to break, so he couldn’t go ahead until he heard from her.
Sella had her own doubts. “Shirou, I- that is, I understand that it’s not proper for you and I to- even though I already...” She was caught in between embarrassment and arousal..
Shirou gave her a soft smile. “I don’t mind it, really. I’m happy that you’d be okay with me for something like this.” His smile twisted into a wry grin. “And besides, I wasn’t kidding. You’re really pretty.”
Her blush spread to her ears. “You- you, are you really Shirou?! Should I start calling you Eromiya instead?”
He ran a hand through her hair, tracing it down her face, and then down her neck. The collar of the dress was in the way.
“I think that might be a bit appropriate.”
He pulled at the bow that held the top together, and pushed it up, exposing her shoulders. At the same time, his other hand reached behind her, grabbing at the strings of her bra. Rather than a clasp, it was tied with a loose bow, almost as if it was made to be taken off. In less than a second, Sella’s chest was entirely bare.
“I said that I’d have you, so I’ll just have to follow through.”
His hands teased up her waist, lightly massaging and caressing her body. He dipped a finger into her belly button, before gently tracing his way up to her chest. Sella, at the same time, was unbuttoning his uniform with rapid efficiency.
“It’s not fair if I’m the only one who has to be exposed, you know.” She said this evenly, not betraying a hint of her feelings.
Her composure only heightened Shirou’s arousal. He wanted to hear her voice break in pleasure. Starting at the curve of her neck, he trailed a series of slow, soft kisses down her body. He stopped directly above the line of her panties.
“You’ll have to hurry up if you want to be even with me, since you were wearing so little from the start.” Saying this, he leaned up and lightly kneaded the tip of her left breast. Though modest compared to Leysritt’s chest, it was still soft, like the rest of her body.
Sella pulled off his uniform and tugged at his shirt. He obliged her by raising his arms, allowing her to pull it off and throw it aside. Sella took that moment to launch her surprise attack. She pushed him down, and pinned his arms above his head.
She gave him a grin, her face flushed with heat. “Shirou, the tortoise always wins against the hare. Your lead doesn’t mean anything if you don’t take advantage of it.” Saying so, she pulled his pants down to his knees. She straddled him, with only two layers of thin fabric between their more intimate parts.
“So Shirou, now that we’re tied, who do you think is going to take the advantage?” She leaned in and stole a kiss, this time teasing her tongue into his mouth, challenging him to respond. Before he could, however, she launched a second attack by stroking at his hardened length through his shorts.
Shirou wrapped his arms around her, taking in the smooth feeling of her back. In between kisses, he managed to gasp out his protests.
“That’s...” Sella swallowed his words. “Not.” He sucked at her lower lip in a preemptive strike. “Fair. Ahhha.” She had slipped her hand into his boxers, now directly clasping his erection.
His hips bucked up instinctively, inadvertently stimulating Sella, who was riding atop his waist. “Annh, Shirou, you of all people don’t have the right to say that.”
He pulled himself back into a sitting position, with Sella balanced on his thighs. “I guess,” his hand dipped toward her entrance, “you’re correct on that account.” His fingers teased at the damp area that had formed on the panties that formed the bottom of her costume. The sudden touch caused her to tense lightly, and she tightened her grip on his cock.
“Yeah, you’re- hyaa!” He had pushed past the strip of cloth, and his finger stroked between her lips. “completely unfair.”
With that, Shirou tugged down her panties, and Sella pulled off his boxers. Because of their position, the length of his shaft was flushed against her slit. Every tiny movement or adjustment sent a ripple of excitement through both of them.
“So,” he said, “who’ll take the advantage now?”
In the shaded field behind the Edelfelt Mansion, the two lovers pushed each other down.
-Epilogue-
Kiritsugu was seated on the couch when Shirou and Sella returned from their rendezvous. On the table was the Thompson Contender, freshly cleaned and oiled.
Kiritsugu flashed them a beatific smile.
“Shirou, Sella, which one of you would like to explain this situation to me first?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------So I wrote it.