===[Sweet Comeuppance]===

"Shirou..."

She whispered his name as her hands caressed his cheek. Her voice was filled with desire, mixed with a hint of pleading. Her eyes met his, and he could see so very clearly what she wanted from him.

He sat on the floor with his back to wall and didn't say anything in response -couldn't say anything in response- as he stared into those lovely eyes.

He wanted to tear his sights away from the woman, but found himself physically unable to.

Greeted with silence, she drew even closer, pressing her entire voluptuous body against him, mounting him, and placing her place inches away from his own.

"R-Rider…"

He spoke her name weakly, an attempt at defiance.

"Yes, Shirou?"

She whispered into his ear and took a playful bite before pressing her forehead against his.

Her lips were so close. He would only to raise his face ever so slightly and he would reach it.

He was faced with that temptation. The temptation to simply throw caution and temperance out of the window and simply grab the woman in front of and pull her into a tight embrace and a deep kiss.

It would be so simple…. To act on it… To revel in it…. To simply forget about the consequences for a just one moment…

"Shirou—"

"Ugh…"

He groaned as he found himself inside his room.

He could feel a bit disappointment at finding himself alone in the futon, having grown used to Sakura being the first person he would always see upon waking. Unfortunately, Sakura would be gone for the entire week in order to help Rin with one of her projects, so he would have to sleep on his own for an extended period of time.

He took a few calming breaths, composing himself, before finally getting up.

"That dream again…"

His dreams had always been rather consistent.

In the past, he would often dream of his very first memory, the fire of Fuyuki. The image of town drowned in flames, the smell of charred wood and corpses, and the sound of screams and pleas for help as he desperately tried to move and seek help.

Other times, he would dream of the Grail War. He would find himself once again in his shed, facing the newly summoned Saber, with all her dignity and elegance and the final they had as he drove the knife that ended her. He would see the moments with Rin as she discussed the war with him, the few precious moments with Illya that they spent not fighting, and every moment he had spent with Sakura as they fought against all the demons that haunted her.

When it wasn't the field of battle, he would dream of happy times. Those dreams would always be spent with Sakura, in the many memories that they've made. The happy times, the sad times, the hard times. Sometimes, Rin and Rider would appear in those dreams, just as they would often spend time with them in real life.

He would often talk about those kind of dreams with his 'family'. Sakura would fondly reminisce along with him, Rider would have a content smile, and whenever Rin would come to visit, she would make sure to tease everyone involved. Taiga would join in and rage about and everyone would laugh heartily.

However, there was one more kind of dream that he kept to himself. Unlike the fire and the grail war that would sometimes come up in conversation, the last kind of dream he would see wasn't something he was entirely too willing to discuss.

It was the dreams he had about Rider.

"Shirou… ah, you've awoken."

The shoji doors opened as he deposited the futon into the closet. Making sure that it was neatly placed, he closed the closet and turned towards his 'partner in crime' for the rest of the week, as Sakura had so aptly put it.

"Good Morning Rider."

"Good Morning Shirou. It's rather rare for you to sleep in, even on a weekend. Did you have a good dream you didn't want to wake up from?"

Using his extreme force of will that had been developed through intense battle with heroes of legend, he pushed the thoughts of his recent dream in the farthest corner of his mind and kept his face straight and just wore a wry smile.

That particular statement was telling but he didn't feel the need to address it at the moment.

"Well… you can say that…"

He rubbed the back of his neck as he let out a sigh. It was going to be a long week.

Breakfast was a simple and quiet affair. A few servings of fish, rice, and miso soup were laid out on the table neatly. Rider had prepared the miso soup, something she usually does when he and Sakura weren't double-teaming the cooking arrangements.

Out of their little family, the two of them were perhaps the most taciturn. With the absence of Taiga, who held enough energy to power a second sun, and Sakura, who would gracefully fill the table with pleasant conversation; the two of them simply enjoyed the companionable silence they shared as they ate. Whenever they were alone together, particularly when they were both reading in Rider's room, this was the their default state.

The only noise was from the television that had been turned on. The channel showed a group of men discussing about Harley Davidson motorcycles and their history. The production of the show was pretty good from in his opinion, with the highlight on specifications for the chopper being particularly interesting.

Both of their attentions had been drawn to it as they ate.

"Hmmm… Shirou, do you think we could manage such a thing in the workshop?"

For the first time since they exchange greetings in the morning, the immaculate silence was broken by Rider's voice. Her voice had always been rather distinct, low, even, and calm in delivery. He had always felt that voice reassuring.

"I think the parts might be a bit too expensive compared to what we usually use. Maybe we can took to the Fujimuras if they have some spare parts?"

"Mmm, I've always been curious how riding a chopper would feel like. Ah… which reminds me. It seems the parts we've been looking for have arrived earlier this morning."

"Oh? Did we actually get the correct size of sprockets?"

"They seem to be the correct ones indeed. If you're free for the day, would you like work on Bellephron?"

Despite her every present calm and measured expression, he could see a glint of excitement on Rider's eyes.

"I don't really have anything important for today that I can't put off for another time. So why don't we clear the table and get to that?"

With the cursory 'gochisousama deshita', the two of them concluded the meal. Rider looked completely calm, her movements not looking hurried at all, yet somehow she was moving at a far faster pace than normal humans could achieve without even making any extra noise.

These were the kind of moments that reminded him that Rider was in fact, not human.

"Shirou, I'll go get the tools and parts ready."

"Sure, I'll follow shortly after washing the dishes."

He deposited the dishes into the sink and began washing. The running water from the faucet was a bit warm, reminding him of the coming summer season.

It felt a bit lonely washing so few but with the coming gathering next week, it was quickly going to change soon.

"That should do it..."

After giving the dining room and kitchen another look to check if anything else needed to be organized, he proceeded to check the bounded fields to make sure that they were operating properly before proceeding to the shed outside.

He entered his shared 'workshop' with Rider. Though it was the place that he used to practice magecraft, it had also become the area where he and Rider could work on their projects together.

He had already changed into more appropriate clothes, wearing a set of overalls that Sakura had given him a few years ago, he proceeded inside to find rider wearing her own set. Compared to his blue overalls, Rider had been wearing black ones. He noted that her long and voluminous hair was tied into a large braid, something she usually did when working on their projects.

"This place has gotten a bit cluttered."

The insides of the sheds wasn't exactly spacious, but it was enough that they could work on motorcycles and still have some freedom of movement. Several shelves and containers were inside, containing parts and components for various appliances he's worked on through the years. Some The mess inside could be called organized chaos as Rin had called it, with various things scattered on the ground and boxes haphazardly stacked on the walls.

"Rider, how are the parts?"

In the five years they've lived together as a family, he and Rider gotten quite a bit closer. One of his hobbies was tinkering and fixing random appliances and machinery, and when Uncle Fujimura had decided to drop an old motorcycle on his lap a few years ago, he also got into learning how they work.

The first motorcycle he was given a chance to take on was an old model of the Kawasaki Ninja, a ZX900. When he wasn't working, training, spending time with Sakura or with the family; it became a side project. He learned how motorcycles and each of its components worked; building his knowledge from the ground up through research and advice from acquaintances in his actual work.

When Rider learned what he was doing, and understood that she may have a chance at riding something that could go faster than any mere bicycle could manage, she had decided to involve herself with the project. She even went as far as providing funding for it and learning how to build and fix the thing along with him.

That particular model was in the parking space outside of the shed. Rider liked to call it 'Number Zero', apparently in order to properly establish the speed ranking since 'Number 1' was a sports bike and 'Number 0' was a granny bike. He briefly wondered if their current project would have been named a negative number had it not taken on name of Rider's beloved mount.

At some point, they're daily conversations shifted to discussions about the project, a fact that was well noted by everyone else they knew. Rin had naturally teased them, Taiga raged about it and cited we needed to act appropriately, and Sakura almost cried tears of happiness at the prospect of him and Rider getting closer.

Apparently, one of Sakura's greatest wishes was that the two of them would get along better.

"Shirou, you've arrive. Could I trouble you to hand me the allen wrench set?"

Rider was kneeling, positioned on the back of the motor cycle, and testing to see if they did indeed have the correct sprocket for the chain drive. Unlike the old ZX900, this one was a newer model from the 300 series. It had a sharp and sleek design, a machine that looked like it was built for speed. and with the stated maximum speed limits of the thing, he almost feared for the streets of Fuyuki once Rider took it for a spin.

It was predominantly black with purple accents, a theme that mimicked Rider's servant outfit quite well. It was actually more of a passion project from Rider than him; its official name being "Bellephron" was a testament to that fact.

"Right, here you go."

Picking up the set of allen wrenches from the nearby toolbox, he approached the kneeling servant and handed her the tools.

From the smile on Rider's face and the fit of the sprocket, it seemed that they might actually get the thing running soon. They had heavily customized the thing, enough that the standard parts for the bike couldn't be used and they needed to spend time finding ones that did.

He had a moment to appreciate exactly how beautiful Rider was when, particularly when she smiled like that, but quickly shook the thought.

"Shirou… looks like we might actually be able to finish this today."

He looked at the motorcycle at that. the most important components were already properly mounted on the chassis and the suspension had already been set. With the wheels they managed to get from another bike and the chain drive getting fitted, it really was about to be completed.

"We'll need to check all the parts and fittings but yeah, we can probably get this thing running by the end of the day…"

"Shall I check if get the lubrication set up while you get the instrumentations done?"

"Sounds like a plan. We can do a test run once we're done getting everything settled."

Nodding to each other, they set to work. In the division of labor, he usually handled anything that was sensitive since Rider still had trouble controlling her strength. She had accidentally broken a few tools and parts when they were starting out, something that she still laments to this day, but she'd made great strides over the years when it comes to control.

Like breakfast, companionable silence reigned as they worked on the bike, moving around the shed without bumping to each other, passing around tools without the need to tell the other, and working more efficiently than most people could ever manage.

Minutes turn into hours as they worked, in silence, focused on the objective before them.

When the bike finally reached completion both of them stood up to appreciate it for a moment.

"I confess that I'm rather excited, Shirou if you would the honors?"

"Alright, let's try this out…"

*VROOOM* - The wonderful sound of the revving engine greeted the two of them as they turned the key. Quickly doing a cursory check of the instrumentations and the primary controls, he shut off the engine and looked towards his partner who was giving a full smile, unlike her usually more reserved ones.

He couldn't blame her. It was a project that they had worked on for months. It took a lot of time and resources but Bellephron had finally come to life.

Of course, in the time of victory disaster decided to strike.

As he let go of the motorcycle, the front wheel shifted to the side, making it bump into the stack of boxes near it. The stack of boxes that seemed to haphazardly stacked, was sent tumbling to the side, knocking over even more things in the shed.

As if divine intervention had occurred, a chain reaction was set off, with the containers behind him starting to fall as well.

In a bid to evade the stack, he tripped on one of the tool boxes nearby. Trying to grab onto something, he tried to hold on to the bike itself. Unfortunately, that was a bad idea to do as the bike wasn't properly set on its stand and fell to the side as well.

"Shirou…!"

Reaching out to prevent him from getting hurt, Rider attempted to catch him, however due to the mess on the ground and the lack of space, he ended up bringing her down to the ground with him.

When the dust had settled and nothing else seemed to want to dive beautifully into the ground, he let out a long sigh.

"Ugh—Really should've listened when Sakura told us to properly organize and clean this place…"

Thankfully neither of them would actually be hurt with something so minor due to their respective situations.

However, he wasn't quite as relieved at his current predicament.

"Well… this is a bit sudden. Sakura did say to make sure to keep you company Shirou, but I certainly didn't think this is what she meant."

It was only with that comment that he realized the position he was in: Rider was right under him and his face was resting on her bountiful chest. It wasn't quite as ideal as one would imagine since both of them smelled of oil, but he figured that essentially any other human being wouldn't find a reason to complain.

On one hand, he liked the fact that they had gotten closer to Rider. On the other hand, one of the perils of that was Rider was even more willing to tease him whenever the opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately, those opportunities came far too often and the situation they were in perfectly qualified for one.

"Sorry Rider, you okay?"

Raising his head a bit and maintaining his calm, he looked Rider to see that she was smiling.

It was the kind of smile that told him she would be teasing him as she saw fit.

It felt strange when the only emotion that elicited from him was one of resignation.

"I'm fine, Shirou... I don't particularly mind our position."

He felt Rider shift below him and he could feel her hands moving to push off the things that were on top of them.

With a relieved sigh, he tried to get up, only to find Rider's arms wrapped around him.

"You know Shirou... I feel like you need a of a workout. Perhaps... I can substitute for Sakura if you're feeling the need to exert yourself?"

He couldn't help but swallow audibly at the implications but quickly shook off the thought.

One of her arms stayed firmly on his back while the other began tracing above it until she caressed his cheeks.

The dreams in the morning played in his head and that compulsion to simply give in almost took over.

Rider made no other move but her arms didn't budge and a few moments passed as they stayed in that position, they're eyes focused on the other.

"Right, let's get up and clean up."

Finding the strength to resist, he spoke those words with just the slightest bit of reluctance, dispelling the tension.

Rider gave him knowing smile before rolling him over, switching their positions, with her now on top, effectively mounting him.

She kept her hold on him as she sat up, his body firmly attached to her own.

"Understood. Shall we clean ourselves before further activities or would you prefer do engage in them immediately?"

He didn't blush. He made sure to give any overt reaction. If he could he would even stop the accelerated heart beat he was experiencing.

He wasn't going to give Rider that pleasure, not after she's pulled this so many times before.

He knew for a fact she was phrasing her question to mean something else entirely.

"… and exactly what kind of activities are we talking about?"

With a raise of an eyebrow and a wry smile, he made sure to properly show that he wasn't going to keep falling for these kinds of baits.

"Well, the physically demanding activity of making lunch of course. Did you have any plans for anything else Shirou?"

"Well yes, if you count cleaning as another form of physically demanding activity."

With yet another knowing smile Rider responded before seeming to relent and let go of him, actually standing up and started fixing their workshop.

As he stood up himself and were clearing the mess, he couldn't help but think back to the dream he had that morning and all the dreams he had in the past.

It was just a small thought he had, just a small moment of mischief.

He responded to that thought as his body moved before he could actually think it through, just like striking at an opening in battle.

"Rider."

He called her name. As he approached her while her back was turned.

"Yes, Shirou?"

Still with a satisfied smile on her face, she turned her face towards him...

... Only to find Shirou's lips touching hers.

It was just for a brief moment, not more than a few seconds.

When he drew back, he took a few seconds to process what he did and couldn't help but blink in surprise.

"S-Shirou…?"

He looked at Rider and saw her eyes widened slightly and a blush creeping on her immaculate white skin. When he met her eyes, a moment passed, until Rider broke the eye contact and looked to the side.

Despite the fact that Rider had spent the past few years teasing him, it looked she wasn't actually prepared for a sudden positive reception.

For some reason, he felt that what he did was entirely justified if it actually made her react in such a way.

"Ah, right. Lunch, let's go prepare some food and eat."

Nodding, he got up and went straight out of the shed.

"Eh? Shirou…!"

He ignored Rider's voice as he staunchly refused to face her, the realization of exactly what he had done finally sinking in.

Exactly what was he doing?

===[Sweet Comeuppance]===

"Sakura, though I appreciate the help, but remind me again why you joined me for this?"

Rin Tohsaka called out to her sister as she put her luggage down on the floor of the hotel room. It was simple in décor, with a large single bed, a large wooden closet, a decently sized bathroom, and a small cooking area.

There were a few things she needed to investigate here in Honshu for the sake of her research. For reasons unknown to her, when she had informed Sakura over the phone that she was going to be in Japan for a while for research purposes and that she would visiting after, her sister had gleefully decided that she was in need of a companion.

It was rather expensive but she needed enough space and with Sakura helping foot the bill, she was able to manage to just barely convince herself to rent it.

Though 'convince herself' wasn't exactly the term she would use. If she was being truthful, 'forced on her by her younger sister' was probably significantly more accurate.

She really did sympathize with Shirou at times.

"Nee-san, it's been a while since we saw each other, was it so wrong that I wanted to spend a bit of time with you?"

With an angelic smile that showed an innocent maiden that could possibly do no wrong, Sakura gave her a smile that would likely melt any innocent boy's heart.

Though the thought made her happy, something that she wasn't really planning on showing, she's gotten to know her younger sister well throughout the years they've spent after finally mutually acknowledging their familial ties.

So it was easy for her to understand that something was up.

"Riiight. You know, you've said that several times throughout the year and I recall that whenever you want to spend time with me like that, Emiya-kun and Rider are usually spending it with us."

"Well, I do think we need a lot more bonding with just us sisters. Don't you want that too Nee-san?"

She could see her sister's expression change as she spoke those words. A small pout, a disappointed face, and a hopeful tone.

That just cemented her suspicions all the more.

However, since she determined that her sister won't be revealing anything soon, she decided that it was best to focus on unpacking.

"So Sakura, what's Emiya-kun doing back in Fuyuki?"

A leading question. She'd have time to actually determine her sister's reason soon enough but most of the weird things that Sakura did could easily be traced back to Shirou.

"Oh, senpai? Well he and Rider should be finishing up Bellephron by now."

As they were unpacking the contents of her luggage, she noted the sly smile that graced her sister's face as she said those words when she stole a quick glance.

She often talked to both Sakura and Shirou, catching up on what's happening with the other's lives. There were also the rare moments when she would talk to Rider, which always lead to interesting conversations on how Shirou and Sakura's relationship develops over time.

She focused on that statement and thought it through.

Looks like she found her lead.

"With Rider huh. Those two have gotten closer throughout the years."

"Yes! They've really bonded over building and working with motorcycles. If I knew it would end up like that earlier, I would've found a way to make it happen earlier!"

Rin nodded, with that the foundation was set.

She needed to build on it slowly.

"I guess that means the two of them will be alone for the week."

"Yes. I do hope that they don't focus on just the motorcycle though. Those two can get a bit absorbed with is sometimes…"

"Oh? Afraid that they'll get a bit too close there Sakura?"

"Hmmm… why would I be afraid? I've always wanted to make them closer to each other."

Rin stopped what she was doing in favour of looking straight at Sakura's expression.

It seems that she didn't actually to take this slow if Sakura was being open about it.

In her head, she reached several conclusions and a few curious questions that needed to be answered.

"I see."

Closing the empty bag, Rin pushed it to the side and approached her younger sister.

"So Sakura, tell me…"

Sakura turned towards her with a confused face. She greeted that face with a smirk.

"… Do you think a servant's riding skill translates to more than just vehicles or…?"

"Nee-san…!"

Her sister immediately blushed at her insinuation but what was telling to her was that it seemed to lack any indignation or even a hint of jealousy.

This time she grinned.

It looks like her next visit would be a lot more interesting.

===[Sweet Comeuppance]===

Here's another one-shot dedicated to Lastmanstanding. Who suggested the characters, setting, and theme of this one-shot.

Been a while since I've written purely slice of life and about the first time I've written romance in such a setting.

Quite a refreshing experience actually. Hopefully I did it well enough.

Thank you for reading!