Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Type-Moon characters or properties expressed in the work of fiction below. They belong to Type-Moon and their creator, Kinko Nasu.
Bloodless Sins
By: Elf
Prologue
Blood On the Wall
“I thought it suited you, so I brought it back to you.”
Rin blinked as she looked at the myriads of reds as the pendent reflected the light. Its platinum bale gleamed as if freshly polished and contrasted with the bronze fingers holding it. Grey eyes didn’t meet hers, a submissive gesture that was at odds from what she’d already gathered from the Servant she Summoned.
Rin reached out and took the Tohsaka family heirloom back.
The pendent had faded almost as quickly as he had, and it couldn’t keep up the valiant fight that he did. Which didn’t make any sense . . . Unless it was something he carried with him as a Servant. Which makes even less sense.
The pain in her side had dulled to a throbbing ache and her now icy blood was soothing in her veins. If it wasn’t for the burning in her left arm she would have just given into the darkness that was starting to seep into her vision. Instead she had dozed off against the crimson smeared wall as a boy with aspirations of heroism and his fallen king fought a battle to stave off the end of the world. Rin knew it was ridiculous and no normal person would believe it, but magi weren’t allowed the luxury to be “normal”.
Magi were allowed knowledge and power that would drive the mundane insane at the cost of blood, hard work, and pain.
A strangled breath collapsed in her throat as the large hand emerged from her back. Nerves fired at once as warmth spilled out from her, pouring onto the once pristine floor. Her limbs twitched in utter protest as she looked at empty eyes before she was discarded. She couldn’t even cry out as she crumpled to the ground, her mouth floundering at the intense agony ripping through her.
She could see the sickly green glow from her Crest under the blood soaked fabric of her blouse. There had been many entries about how the Tohsaka Crest – or most magus family Crests – would keep the bearer alive if they were not instantly killed. Prana was pumping through her in surges of white heat that made her vision blur.
Ruptured organs were starting to pull back together as shredded tissue knitted back again. It would be days before the wound was totally heal, but Rin knew she wouldn’t die. Not from anything that false priest did, she thought as another strike of that intense heat flashed through her side. Her spine bowed with it and a cry escaped her lips as her fingers bit into the wall behind her.
In the corner of her eye, all she could see was pure red. A bright, garish color that almost had an orange undertone to it. Not the red she favored or the red of her Archer’s mantle. This was the red that inspired instinctual gut reactions. This red was the symbol of life, and it had poured from her wantonly.
It wasn’t the cool red of the pendent that Archer had gotten back for her. The pendent that he had kept even as a heroic spirit. The pendent that made her wonder if he had been lying about not knowing his identity, because she had lost it after only using it once. And I lost it healing only one person. The same idiot who’s fighting to save the world right now, Rin thought.
I should have been there, Rin thought, We should have been there.
Even though she knew all too well that Archer wasn’t there, she wanted her wishes to be known. In a perfect world it would have been her and Archer versus Emiya Shirou and his Saber. Rin would have won, but she would have used her wish to grant both Servants a second chance at a mortal life because she liked them both, and Emiya-kun would be lost without his Saber. It wasn’t as if she had anything better to do with the Grail. Using it for something she could accomplish herself just seemed like an utter waste.
Biting her lip, Rin forced herself up. Whatever condition Emiya-kun returned home in, it wouldn’t do if she was still here bleeding all over his floor. The Crest was doing its job, despite the white hot anguish that was pulsing through her. She cried out with it, but she stayed on her feet and was able to move them, if very slowly, to start her walk home.
******
“Hold still and sit down.”
Archer sighed as he did as he was instructed and sank into the chair in front of the desk in the Emiya House guestroom. Rin was studying him, aquamarine eyes narrowed and her cheeks slightly flushed. He smiled at the look, wondering what she was going to do.
“I’m sitting, Rin,” he replied as he crossed his legs, idly bouncing his foot up and down as she continued to watch him.
She looked to where his foot was still in motion and he felt a bit of heaviness in his shoulders. He uncrossed his legs and sat up straight, causing the heaviness to immediately retreat. Work roughened palms were resting upon the heavy leather of his pants and his fingertips brushed against the straps that went all the way up his thighs.
He saw Rin’s hands clench and unclench into fists before moving closer to him. The golden lamp light cast shadows on her fair skin and cast ruddy highlights in her raven hair. It was a sight that made him nostalgic for another time and What Ifs he was in no position to entertain. It was just another mistake in the massive list he had accrued in his life, a life he wanted to erase.
She moved closer, her eyes closing and her mouth parting. Archer’s eyes widened right as she moved forward in a lightning quick motion, one hand on his shoulder and the other resting on his chair by his side. Thick locks of raven hair brushed against his face and chest as the smell of tea and strawberries filled his nostrils. His heart quickened right as Rin’s lips brushed against his.
The action caused him to freeze for a moment until he registered that Rin’s soft, slightly cool lips were moving awkwardly against his.
He had dreamed of kissing Tohsaka Rin most of his life, and being brought back as her Servant hadn’t tempered that desire either. He had no idea why she was doing this, but at the moment it didn’t matter. Rin was kissing him, and he found his arms moving to wrap around her to pull her closer.
One hand entangled in thick, silken hair as the other rested chastely on the middle of her back. He was moving his lips against hers, taking the lead with his greater experience. He brushed his lips against hers until she parted hers with a gasp. He pressed forward, holding her closer and he was distantly aware of her arms wrapping around his neck. He wanted to sweep his tongue through her mouth, tasting everything she had to offer, instead he gently prodded her lips with it. Spicy curry and sweet tea danced along his tongue with something richer underneath it all. It was something that made his lips burn that was wholly, and utterly Rin.
Then her tongue clumsily brushed against his as they kissed, wetness smearing his lips. They continued to kiss for this endless moment as Archer became aware of the heat roaring within his veins. He felt a soothing pulse travel from Rin into him and he gasped as he felt lingering pain in his abdomen washed away. Rin lifted her head, her cheeks bright red and her normally vibrant eyes smoky and heavily lidded as they met his.
They were both breathing hard and neither of them let go as they just stared at each other. “Archer,” Rin said before letting go and moving away, a hand fluttering up to kiss swollen lips.
He had the urge to lick his own lips to savor the remnants of their kiss on them. He reluctantly slid his hands away from her, giving her hair a last stroke before letting it go. Archer crossed his arms over his chest and asked, “What was that for?”
“I wanted to try something before I told Shirou, something that could help his connection with Saber,” Rin said before looking away.
He felt a cold smirk cross his lips and replied, “You wanted to see if you could open the connection between us more.”
“And it worked. Your wound’s healed, right?” Rin asked as she stood straight and folded her arms under her breasts.
Archer shrugged and said, “It wasn’t troubling to begin with.”
“You almost died. I had to use another Command Spell because of it!” Rin replied, her eyes flashing.
He smiled and said, “Well, if you hadn’t wasted the first one in the first place, then it wouldn’t have been a problem, now would it?”
“If you hadn’t been so troublesome I wouldn’t have had to waste it,” Rin said, aquamarine eyes flashing. Her skin was still flushed, her hair slightly rumpled, and lips still slightly swollen from their kiss. He’d be even more damned not to admit how that sight affected him.
Mortal desires reawakened. It’s sensory overload to go from an unfeeling murderous hell to this, he thought. He had been confused at first, his memory scattered not from a clumsy summoning from Rin, but due to all the information he had to process. However the sight of seeing Rin after only Alaya knew how long struck a cord in him.
Seeing Rin seventeen and still unsure of herself, a switch in the power structure of the relationship he shared with the Rin in his life, caused him to indulge in teasing. Part of it was revenge for Rin always being so far ahead of him; he knew it wasn’t something that was going to happen again so he momentarily lorded over the power he had over her.
Until he remembered why it was so dangerous to piss Toshaka Rin off, even though that was pleasurable as well. For a moment, all thoughts of Time Paradoxes and erasing his existence was forgotten. For that moment he just wanted to see how riled up he could get Rin and then make it up to her later.
Archer shrugged and honestly replied, “I just couldn’t help myself.”
“You’re hopeless,” Rin said with a sigh.
His lips formed a bitterly curved line that wasn’t quite a smirk. He said, “You have no idea.”
She quickly looked away, fidgeting slightly with the fabric of her miniskirt. As always his eyes were drawn to that pale line of her thigh that was exposed where her skirt ended and her thigh highs began. That forbidden zone that he had missed when Rin lowered her him line after going to London to study at the Association, the beginning of the decay of what he could consider their “relationship”.
Or one of the worse things I screwed up, he thought as he watched Rin fidget slightly. He relaxed, lowered his arms, and asked, “Are you okay?”
“What’s that suppose to mean?” Rin asked as she looked at him.
Archer leaned forward to lightly her left twin-tail back into place. She’d just given him her first kiss, and for a magical reason. A majority of the joys of being a teenage girl were denied to her and not by choice like his idiotic self. He didn’t have to follow the path of the hero; he just clung to the first beautiful thing in his blank state and build his broken personality towards it. He wanted to be like the wonderful person who saved him, the wonderful person who was almost as flawed as Archer had turned out to be.
Rin had been born into the magus life and there was no way out of it for her. She would crack under its heavy restraints before building a wall of ice around herself. He adored the girl beneath the magus, and wished she could be that girl, but there was no hero to rescue her. Emiya Shirou had chosen Saber already, Archer could see the seeds being sewn there and King Arthur was unaware of how she was losing her own heart to her Master.
Instead of answering her question, he leaned forward and kissed her again.
He reined in his own need, gently kissing her and feeling her respond to it. Her arms wrapped around his neck, one gripping his hair as he returned her embrace. He savored the gentle dance of lips and tongue before giving Rin’s lips one final caress. He pulled away and she was looking up at him again.
“Oh,” Rin said as she blinked rapidly.
“So, this is why Rin was so upset after I insulted you after you got killed by Berserker,” a sing-song voice said, breaking the memory. “You gave a girl false hope, Onii-chan.”
Archer blinked. Rin was still in his arms but she had gone perfectly still. The Emiya guest room shattered as he saw a petite form standing before him, flowing silvery white hair covering her naked form. Crimson eyes met his and Archer froze at the scowl marring gamine features as the Emiya guest room faded.
Thick smoke wafted around them and an endless smog filled sky with flashes of orange stretched over head. Heavy gears grinded slowly in the distance as swords impaled the ground as far as the eye could see. Flames flickered from points of the landscape as Archer realized he was back in his own mind.
Illyasviel Von Einzbern stood before him completely bare, her eyes narrowed and hands on his hips. Then her large, garnet colored eyes flickered around the barren landscape that was his world. Something wavered in her eyes for a moment before she bit her lip and held out her hand to him.
He stared at her outstretched hand and said, “I thought you were angry at me.”
“I was. Some no-named Servant managed to kill my Berserker six times,” Ilya said as she took another step towards him. Her long, silvery hair was blowing slightly due to the thermals created from within Archer’s World.
Archer said, “I would have completely killed him if . . .”
“If you hadn’t been worried about my safety,” Ilya said with a sigh, “If you had gotten a chance to deploy this you could have.”
Archer frowned and asked, “Why are you here? You didn’t look into me before.”
“I’m bringing you back to life because Onii-chan is an idiot and I guess I owe Rin,” she said with a tiny smile as she moved her extended hand again.
Archer’s frown deepened into a scowl and he asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Ilya?”
“You never stopped being dense, did you, Onii-chan?” Ilya asked with a tiny smile before her tiny hand gripped his and he was thrust into being once again.
Author's Notes: I got stuck with "Utopia" and found myself writing Saber moe because it was the easy way out. Now "Utopia" isn't dead, but I just need to figure out where to go. Not to mention with all the crap that has been going on at work, I need something fun for me to write. So yay for snark.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Resurrections and Reunions
Chapter Two: Bloodied Reunion
Chapter Three: Attacks of Conscience and Kingly Logic