Shirou stepped off the train and paused to get his bearings. His employer had asked him to take a package to a friend whose daughter had been in an accident not too long ago and just got home from the hospital. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the directions he had been given.

"Why did Fuji-Nee have to be the one to write this?" He grumbled. The further he got from the train station the harder they would be to understand. "Rin must have 'helped' her. How was I supposed to know she was on her period when I ate that chocolate bar?" he muttered.

/

"See you later Kaa-san." Miyuki said as she passed her mother at the counter.

"I'll see you at home Miyuki-chan, do help your brother keep Nanoha out of trouble won't you?" her adoptive mother asked.

"All right Kaa-san." With that, she went out the door and started to work her way down the street.

/

Shirou stopped at the corner of store and started trying to decipher the next bit of the note. Rin must have been more ticked with him than he realized if she was willing to do something as petty as tricking Taiga into helping hide the message 'this is for the chocolate, Shirou' into the note. And the fact that the characters used were in Saber's handwriting spoke volumes of what would happen if he didn't bring a peace offering home.

He heard footsteps coming from around the corner. Shirou would later debate between calling himself an idiot for not making sure the person wouldn't run into him or lucky for what that incident led to.

/

A startled yelp tore from Miyuki's throat as she crashed into someone. Recoiling slightly, Miyuki took a moment to regain her bearing before looking down at the person she had run into.

"I'm sorry I was in a hurry and…" She began.

"It's all right; I should have been paying more attention." The red-haired boy said, getting up with a package. When he looked up, she stiffened slightly, barely able to suppress a gasp. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine; let me help you with that."

"No, it's fine. Though… could you direct me to the Midori-ya? My boss asked me to take this package to the owner."

"It's two blocks down the way I just came." Miyuki's hand started to inch towards her back pocket.

"Thank you, and sorry." The boy said as he left. As he turned the corner Miyuki had passed moments before, her self-control failed and she tore her wallet from the back pocket of her jeans and removed a picture. It was Miyuki, her birth mother and a young boy with red hair that seemed to look like a younger version of the one she ran into. She bolted for the Midori-ya.

/

'I guess crashing into that girl was a lucky break; I thought I would be still trying to find the café for another half hour.' Shirou thought to himself. 'Though I wonder what was wrong, she seemed to have been shocked by my face.'

/

Momoko looked up as the bell on the door rang. A young man with red hair and amber eyes came in carrying a package.

"Excuse me. Would you be Takamichi Momoko-san?" the red-head asked.

"Yes, I would…" Momoko trailed off with a questioning tone.

"Emiya Shirou, my boss at the Copenhagen bar asked me to bring this here, she had heard about your daughter being hurt in some kind of accident."

"But that's in Fuyuki city! I…"

"Don't worry Takamichi-san, I'm happy to help. I caught the train here and I should be able to catch the next one in three hours to get home."

"In that case, you can use my given name. Please sit down and I'll get you some tea, if you have three hours then I won't take no for an answer. It's the least I can do for the trouble you've taken to get here." Deciding that arguing with her would be futile, Shirou sat down at a nearby table, thanking her as she placed the tea before him. As he thanked her, the door opened, revealing Miyuki to her adoptive mother's surprise.

"Kaa-san, you need to see something," the young woman said as they both approached the counter. She pulled out a photograph from her pocket and laid it on the counter.

"It's a picture of your birth family, Miyuki-chan." Momoko said a look of slight confusion on her face. In reply, Miyuki tapped the red-headed boy in the picture and glanced at Shirou taking a sip of his tea.

"Impossible, Shirou-san is from… Fuyuki…City." The older woman's eyes widened and she grasped the counter to steady herself.

"I already called Shamal, she and Signum will be here in a few minutes." Miyuki said, gazing into the eyes of the woman who raised her.

/

A flash of worry shot through Shirou as he watched Momoko-san grab the counter all of a sudden. She seemed to steady herself after another comment from her daughter before she went back to work as the girl went in to the back and came out shortly after in an apron and started helping her mother. As the bell on the door rang, Shirou barely kept himself steady when an overwhelming scent of ashes and a more subtle scent of a breeze over a lake flooded the room. Glancing at the door, He saw two women enter the café, a gentle looking blonde and a pink-haired woman that reminded me of Saber, receiving warm greetings from the owner and her daughter. Calming down, Shirou went back to enjoying the wonderful tea Momoko had given him.

/

Miyuki barely kept from rushing over to the knights of her little sister's friend in her nervousness. As they approached Miyuki's mind raced, figuring out how to ask Shamal to do some sort of test to see if the boy really is him.

"Miyuki, you said you needed a favor? You sounded like it was urgent." Shamal asked with a smile on her face. Signum was looking around the room, checking for something, when her eyes settled on Shirou.

As she shifted to be able to watch him without being obvious, he mimicked her actions the two seem to stare at one another.

/

'Darn it, I come here as a favor to my boss and I might have just ticked off a powerful Magus.' Shirou thought as he continued the subtle staring contest with the woman, praying that she dismissed him as a threat.

/

Miyuki picked up the photo and walked over to the table where he sat, trembling slightly as she tried to stay calm. She reached the table and took a deep breath.

"Excuse me, Emiya-san? Could you look at this photograph please?" Miyuki asked, the numb feeling returning in full force, as she placed the photo on the table and slid it over to him. He picked it up a frown on his face as he studied the picture. He froze, staring that the photo, eyes wide.

/

This couldn't be real. His family had died in the fire. He regained control of himself and looked the girl who gave him the photo.

"Are you sure?" Shirou asked.

"Yes, I think you might be my brother."