towerofanimus | I made it through town somehow;

Characters: Archer (

swordedpast) and Rin Matou (

angramaintsu)
Setting: The hotel, early this month.
Format: Prose to begin with.
Summary: Archer tries to soothe Rin with awkward romance after a month of fighting and loss. It doesn't go well.
Warnings: Really alarmingly rough sex.

It's strange: the brutal events of Ruana's month are not what truly worry Archer now.

No, he fought through those well enough at Rin's side. His world narrowed to her and only her, for a blessed little while, and that was fine. After all, he is no longer someone who can defend countless people; he's failed at that too clearly, too many times. Now his only purpose is to protect this broken woman, and while he can hardly say he's happy knowing just how much he's failed, a part of him is strangely content with that.

But he isn't content with watching her fall apart as she realizes that her sister has vanished from the tower once more. And when he sees another Matou's name crop up in the graveyard--Kariya Matou--he knows he has to step in before she finds that, too.

But what can he do to ease her pain? That's all he wanted to know. It's all he's wanted to know for some time now, really.

In the end, as he watches her sleep, he realizes that it's simple. He should treat her like a normal woman for once. Together, they should pretend to be a normal couple. He should show her the tenderness she's never had.

So when she wakes in the morning, he's ready. After he's brought her breakfast, he proposes that they take a trip, and he suffers the slings and arrows of her sass as a result, but he brings her there all the same. He brings her to the hotel with a light, amused smile on his face, and he checks into a room for the two of them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Deserve to be kissed? That's sort of what I'm used to..."

Kissing usually goes hand in hand with everything else, doesn't it? Not thinking once that Archer means that kind of kissing (or that he's even trying to be romantic with her), she just grows more puzzled and distressed as he continues.

"I don't understand what you're trying to say, stupid Archer! Did you bring me here for t-that!"

He has to keep moving forward. For Rin, he has to keep rushing forward with his plan, even if he starts to regret it, even if it starts to go wrong. The kind of hero who goes back on his vows isn't the kind of hero she needs or deserves.

So he seizes the moment and gives her a grin. "Yeah, Rin. I brought you here for that, but naturally by 'that' I mean, 'A really fine evening where I treat you to flowers, and kisses.' We don't have music, but I'll do something stupid like recite poetry if you want that too."

He's starting to have a bad feeling about this. He ignores it.

"Poetry?"

Raising a brow as curiosity starts to take over. "Alright Archer, let's hear you recite some of this poetry."

If anything, she can rely on him for making her laugh. Not that she's had to yet, but the thought of a knight clad in red reciting poetry is funny enough in mind.

Oh. Oh, shit. She called him on his bluff. Well, it might have been a bluff, but now he has to make it real for her. Hasn't that always been what he's done?

It was pretty stupid of him to offer, though.

Archer swallows hard and carefully closes the door of the hotel room behind the two of them. Then he turns and stares at Rin with the look of a deer in headlights.

He drops to one knee, reaches for a flower, and holds it up to her. Just to stall for time, at this point. Then he racks his brain for love poetry.

It springs to mind surprisingly easily. After all, he once spent a great deal of time researching myths and legends of heroes, and in studying old Greek things, sometimes he found poems--

"Ah." He licks his dry lips and tries to remember. It's a good thing he has a good memory, because after a moment it comes to him. "O soft and dainty maiden, from afar / I watch you, as amidst the flowers you move, / And pluck them, singing." He can't remember who wrote this one, though. "More, m-more silver than all silver your tresses are: / never was harp-note like your voice, my love, / Your voice sweet-ringing."

He's suddenly sure he's going to die.

"Did you just say I harp at you all the time?"

Yes.

He's going to die.

"That's not romantic. That's not romantic at all. Even when you add a flower to it, you're still referring to me as a harpy!"

Not once does she think of the instrument.

He drops the flower. It falls to the floor and finds no salvation there.

"I also called you a soft and dainty maiden, but you're not dainty at all. Well, it was a really terrible choice." His face is red and he's glaring. So much for a romantic evening; he can see a night full of bickering looming.

But he doesn't get up from the floor.

"Ugh--you're not making this any better, Archer."

He's red in the face and she's already feeling more upset than anger. Squatting down, she picks up the flower into her hands gently. Even in doing that, it practically falls apart in her hands as a couple of the petals slip through her fingertips.

"Everything is so easily broken here, isn't it? I never used to think that until the..." A gulp. "...power outage. The power outage. Now I know just how fake everything is."

Bringing it up to her nose, she inhales deeply. "It smells more beautiful than anything I've ever seen in my life. Isn't that pathetic, Archer?"

"You're real."

He doesn't hesitate for a second before saying it. "I don't know about everything else, but even when the power was out, I thought I needed to take care of you. So you must be real. I wouldn't concern myself with fakes."

He gets enough of a fake with himself, after all. But he can't show that bitterness when she makes a face like that. Instead, he reaches out to rest a hand against her head. "Jeez, don't call yourself pathetic."

"I am?" Before she can begin a tirade of how fake she is and everything they've done was, he says something like that. "Does that mean... everything we've done is real?"

The touch of his hand feels real enough to her as she leans into it. Drawing strength from the simple gesture tamed the flame that begun and soon she felt herself relaxing in his presence.

Her Archer went through a lot of work for this. He had to. Luxuries didn't come easily in this tower despite how easy this month started off.

"Are we really going to do everything you suggested?"

A flicker of doubt glitters in his eyes. Everything they've done?

Does that include the awful way he treated her, that time when he was under the geas of the fairies?

But he can't deny it: that was real, too. "Yeah, don't imply I'd fake something for you, Rin. You're worthy of everything real."

Except...

"Well, maybe not the poetry. Um, but I wonder if I could find music..."

"I thought it was a nice poem." She admits in her haste to shut him up.

After all, Archer isn't allowed to have doubts when she is. If they both were unsure of how to move forward, then how will they ever survive in this tower together?

"You don't mind if I keep those words with me, do you? I don't mind being compared to a harp or gentle things. It kind of gives me a goal to pursue..."

"Ah, I knew you did." And then he's smug again, just like that. "But don't take it too seriously as a goal. You're much stronger than something delicate like a harp."

He starts to rise to his feet. "Honestly, you're also more beautiful. Hold still, Rin."

And he does something impulsive, but also something that he's already promised: he leans down to try to kiss her, very gently.

(He lied. This is "roleplaying." He knows deep down that he isn't fit for gentle kisses, even if she deserves them more than anything. He knows that the bond between them is something stranger and darker than simply that of lovers. But he has to try and pretend.)

Her arms move up to reach up around the back of his neck, wanting to hold onto him instead. Favoring physical intimacy of that kind instead of his fake romantic gestures, her fingers struggle to grip onto his shoulders.

"Archer, do you really believe that?" Quietly, afraid of his answer. "That I'm beautiful and that the two of us can be normal lovers even if only for a day?"

She doesn't sound as though she's capable of believing it herself.

"My uncle put you up to this, didn't he?"

One hand of his goes up to settle over one of her hands on his shoulder, covering her fingers. "If you think I care at all what your uncle thinks, you're entirely wrong, Rin."

He draws back just a little. "I only saw that you were troubled, and I wanted to make you less troubled. I will do whatever it takes."

There's desperation in his eyes. If he can't make things better for her even a little, in this wretched tower, then what good is he at all?

"Whatever it takes..."

Something stirs within her as she looks beyond him towards the bed nearby. Tempting as it is, they're here to be romantic, not screw.

"I'm not sure what we can do while we're here besides sleep. It isn't as though this is a resort and you've already had to recite poetry at me. Television maybe, but um, I'm not sure what there is to watch..."

I made it through town somehow;

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