Princess, PG
Fandom: Fate/Zero
Prompt: What if Kotomine had actually raised Rin as her guardian? (aka, Gil is Rin's mom, and Kirei is that relative who gives you clothes you don't want but have to pretend to like for every special occasion)
***
Rin didn’t cry. She didn’t ask for Father or Mother. She was formal, polite, and distant with Kirei.
Kirei found himself increasingly wondering just how she would break.
She moved back into the mansion without fuss, taking the train back into the city with her little suitcase. She bypassed her own room and started sleeping in her parents’ bed, as head of the household. She said she’d have their personal effects put in storage, sold, or thrown away once Kirei had gotten the initial flood of paperwork out of the way. She set up her small collection of gems and kit of magical components on the desk of her father’s workroom.
She didn’t even complain, or appear to notice, that the scarf Kirei had given her for the funeral was scratchy. That just wouldn’t do.
“That’s mine. Give it back!”
“All things are property of the king.”
“It’s mine.”
“I can take it, therefore it is mine.”
Rin tried to stamp on Gilgamesh’s foot, which he avoided without seeming to move.
“Why do you even want my unicorn?” she asked, still straining on her tiptoes for where he was holding it. “It’s pink. Are you a girl?”
“A unicorn can gore a dozen men. Are you a warrior?”
“It’s from my m--” Rin shook her head. “It’s just a kid’s toy. I don’t need it. I have new spells to work on.” She didn’t look back until the workroom door closed behind her.
Kirei smiled across the kitchen at his Servant. Gilgamesh gave a careless shrug that said ‘She’ll learn.’
* * *
The next morning Rin took an unusually long time washing her face, but that didn’t remove the bags under her eyes. After school, she took her unicorn back from the top of the refrigerator.
Gilgamesh didn’t come back from wherever he’d been around town until well into the night. Even half-asleep, Rin threw three pillows at him, one slightly on fire, and didn’t let anyone see her cry.
She took her unicorn back the next day and put a bucket of water balanced over the door. She got a bucket of lukewarm water splashed on her.
The next day she stayed in her workroom until late, then searched the house for her unicorn unsuccessfully. She found Gilgamesh sprawled across her par--her bed, having abandoned Kirei’s. “He still sleeps on a cot. This room is clearly best.”
“Scoot over,” she ordered, and he didn’t. If he patted her head while she cried, then it was only how he would a pet. Even when she blew her nose on his shirt.
* * *
“Do you want to see your sister Sakura again?” asked Kirei off-handedly one day.
“I don’t have a...” Gilgamesh’s training was paying off, and after a pause, Rin said, “Yes. If you would draft a letter from the head of the Tohsaka family to the head of the Matou family, perhaps we’ll have tea.”
“You’ll finally have a chance to wear that new pink dress you got for Christmas.”
Rin groaned almost as loudly as she had when she opened his present, and Kirei’s expression didn’t change outwardly.
Two months later, the main Matou mansion in Fuyuki mysteriously burned down, the neighbors reported a very well-dressed man complaining to a priest that he couldn’t believe they were picking up another one (but occasionally lapsing into a smile that looked wrong on his cruel face), and Matou Zouken’s plans had to be slightly pushed back.
* * *
“You’re my new minions. Go get me lunch.”
“I told you to stay away from the devil woman, Shirou.”
“Don’t be silly, Issei. She’s not that bad.”
“I can still hear you, Ryuudou, Emiya. Chop chop.”
“You know,” said Kiritsugu like it pained him, but then everything pained him these days, “that your daughter is bullying my son.”
The edge of Kirei’s lip curled up slightly enough to have been invisible to anyone else. While Kiritsugu was too resigned to the decay of his body to have bothered to have tensed for a fight, Kirei really was loose-limbed and relaxed, enjoying the tacky Parents’ Day banners at her new school and the Ryuudou boy’s squeals as Rin held onto his ear and detailed exactly what she wanted for lunch.
“She gets it from her mother.”
Prompt: What if Kotomine had actually raised Rin as her guardian? (aka, Gil is Rin's mom, and Kirei is that relative who gives you clothes you don't want but have to pretend to like for every special occasion)
***
Rin didn’t cry. She didn’t ask for Father or Mother. She was formal, polite, and distant with Kirei.
Kirei found himself increasingly wondering just how she would break.
She moved back into the mansion without fuss, taking the train back into the city with her little suitcase. She bypassed her own room and started sleeping in her parents’ bed, as head of the household. She said she’d have their personal effects put in storage, sold, or thrown away once Kirei had gotten the initial flood of paperwork out of the way. She set up her small collection of gems and kit of magical components on the desk of her father’s workroom.
She didn’t even complain, or appear to notice, that the scarf Kirei had given her for the funeral was scratchy. That just wouldn’t do.
“That’s mine. Give it back!”
“All things are property of the king.”
“It’s mine.”
“I can take it, therefore it is mine.”
Rin tried to stamp on Gilgamesh’s foot, which he avoided without seeming to move.
“Why do you even want my unicorn?” she asked, still straining on her tiptoes for where he was holding it. “It’s pink. Are you a girl?”
“A unicorn can gore a dozen men. Are you a warrior?”
“It’s from my m--” Rin shook her head. “It’s just a kid’s toy. I don’t need it. I have new spells to work on.” She didn’t look back until the workroom door closed behind her.
Kirei smiled across the kitchen at his Servant. Gilgamesh gave a careless shrug that said ‘She’ll learn.’
* * *
The next morning Rin took an unusually long time washing her face, but that didn’t remove the bags under her eyes. After school, she took her unicorn back from the top of the refrigerator.
Gilgamesh didn’t come back from wherever he’d been around town until well into the night. Even half-asleep, Rin threw three pillows at him, one slightly on fire, and didn’t let anyone see her cry.
She took her unicorn back the next day and put a bucket of water balanced over the door. She got a bucket of lukewarm water splashed on her.
The next day she stayed in her workroom until late, then searched the house for her unicorn unsuccessfully. She found Gilgamesh sprawled across her par--her bed, having abandoned Kirei’s. “He still sleeps on a cot. This room is clearly best.”
“Scoot over,” she ordered, and he didn’t. If he patted her head while she cried, then it was only how he would a pet. Even when she blew her nose on his shirt.
* * *
“Do you want to see your sister Sakura again?” asked Kirei off-handedly one day.
“I don’t have a...” Gilgamesh’s training was paying off, and after a pause, Rin said, “Yes. If you would draft a letter from the head of the Tohsaka family to the head of the Matou family, perhaps we’ll have tea.”
“You’ll finally have a chance to wear that new pink dress you got for Christmas.”
Rin groaned almost as loudly as she had when she opened his present, and Kirei’s expression didn’t change outwardly.
Two months later, the main Matou mansion in Fuyuki mysteriously burned down, the neighbors reported a very well-dressed man complaining to a priest that he couldn’t believe they were picking up another one (but occasionally lapsing into a smile that looked wrong on his cruel face), and Matou Zouken’s plans had to be slightly pushed back.
* * *
“You’re my new minions. Go get me lunch.”
“I told you to stay away from the devil woman, Shirou.”
“Don’t be silly, Issei. She’s not that bad.”
“I can still hear you, Ryuudou, Emiya. Chop chop.”
“You know,” said Kiritsugu like it pained him, but then everything pained him these days, “that your daughter is bullying my son.”
The edge of Kirei’s lip curled up slightly enough to have been invisible to anyone else. While Kiritsugu was too resigned to the decay of his body to have bothered to have tensed for a fight, Kirei really was loose-limbed and relaxed, enjoying the tacky Parents’ Day banners at her new school and the Ryuudou boy’s squeals as Rin held onto his ear and detailed exactly what she wanted for lunch.
“She gets it from her mother.”