#anoelsworld

As Shirou woke up, the first thing he noticed was that his nose was cold. Yawning, he sat up and looked out the window. It was snowing. “Oh yeah,” he murmured to himself, “Christmas is this week.”

Shirou got dressed and headed to the kitchen, hoping that Sakura hadn’t beaten him to making breakfast. Again. But no, he was the first one up this morning. Starting in on some eggs, Shirou reflected on the past few months.

After the madness with the repeating four days and Bazett died down, Illya, Rin, Sakura, and Caren devised a way for the servants to stay in this world for as long as they chose. Shirou didn’t understand any of the terms they batted around, and from time to time Sakura seemed lost too. In the end, it was decided that Illya would provide most of the necessary mana, while measures would be taken to keep her frail body functioning properly. It made Shirou really angry when he found out how long Illya would live without some drastic measures. And that Stella and Liz would be even shorter lived… It had really pissed him off.

They used Rin’s basement to carefully re-summon the servants of the fifth Holy Grail war. Shirou and Saber were overjoyed to be reunited. Lancer flirted hard with Bazett, who just blushed and stammered. Archer was quite proud of Rin, who preened under his dry praise. Caster was impressed that they’d pulled this stunt off and immediately headed to the temple to be reunited with Kuzuki-sensei and summon Assassin again. Rider was the most surprised, but quickly acclimated and stuck close to Sakura. Beserker was surprisingly gentle as he picked up Illya and put her on his shoulder.

In any case, things went back to a crazy shade of normal after that. Shirou saw Lancer and Bazett around town, working odd jobs. Rider read books and took up motorcycle racing, and was of course amazing at it given her class. Berserker guarded Illya’s castle out in the woods. Caster settled back in at the temple and was sometimes seen shopping and buying cookbooks. Archer took to patrolling the city at night, most of the time with Rin. Assassin resumed guarding the temple gate, and sometimes nettling Caster. And Saber…

Shirou could tell that Saber was bored. With no war to fight or disaster that needed stopping, she had nothing to do. The two of them still trained in the dojo, and that was likely the high point of Saber’s day.

Just as Shirou was thinking about her, Saber entered the main room. “Good morning, Shirou.”

“Ah, good morning Saber,” Shirou replied. “Breakfast is almost done. Can you help me set the table?”

“I will,” Saber said. “But I must say Shirou, you must have gotten up very early to be nearly done making breakfast at half past 5 in the morning.”

Shirou looked at the clock on the stove. The glowing numbers read 5:29. “Whoa, you’re right! I guess the cold woke me up.”

“It is quite cold today. The snow is starting to fall quite hard, in fact,” Saber said, looking towards the courtyard.

“I guess we’re having a white Christmas this year, then,” Shirou mused.

“Shirou, what does that mean?” Saber asked, puzzled.

“Oh, well…” Shirou started to try to explain the concept of a white Christmas to Saber.

About halfway through the explanation, Taiga Fujimura burst in shouting, “And I’ve already reserved everyone some fried chicken, so don’t you worry!”

“Fried chicken?” Saber asked slowly, perking up a bit at the topic of food.

“Yeah! I’m not sure why, but everyone in Japan eats Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner on Christmas!” Taiga said enthusiastically. “And they sell out really fast, so I reserved some for me, and for Shirou, and for you Saber, and for Rider, and for Sakura, and an extra in case of guests!”

“That is indeed good planning,” Saber said.

“I’m glad you think so,” Taiga preened in response.

The hallway door slid open and in came Sakura and Rider. Morning greetings were exchanged and the group sat down for breakfast.

As it was a Sunday, after breakfast Taiga proceeded to lie around the living room watching TV. Rider went back to her room to read and Sakura went out for some errands.

Shirou and Saber went out to the dojo to train. After working up a good sweat, they sat down to rest. It was then that Shirou had somewhat of an epiphany. “Saber,” he said, “why don’t you open up a school?”

“A school?” she said, looking doubtful.

“Yeah, for teaching sword play! You couldn’t be as hard on general students as you are on me, but I think it would be a great thing to do with your time,” Shirou said.

“Yes, everyone else does have their hobbies,” Saber murmured. “But Shirou, do you have any idea how to go about opening up a public dojo?”

“Well,” Shirou faltered for a moment. “Fuji-nee used to compete in kendo so she’d have some connections, and I’m sure old man Raiga would help us set something up.”

“Very well, Shirou. It sounds like a plan. Now, shall we get back to training?”

“Sure.”

After at time of Saber hitting Shirou and Shirou trying to hit Saber with their bamboo swords, they retired for lunch. That afternoon was the same routine.

A few days later, Sakura and Shirou were making dinner when Sakura remarked, “Rider and I are going to see a movie on Christmas day. Are you and Saber doing anything special?”

“I haven’t planned anything,” Shirou said.

“Today is the 23rd after all. You have to decide soon!” Sakura said, smiling cheerfully.

After that, dinner was nice. Rin was visiting, and she was clearly excited for Christmas.

“Archer is planning something nice for us,” she boasted. “He’s going to cook me dinner and then he said that there’s a view he wants to show me.”

“Sakura and I are going to see a new adventure movie,” Rider said. “I’ve read the book it’s based on, so I’m quite interested.”

“I’ll be doing some family business for most of the day,” Taiga said. “But I’ll be back for fried chicken at dinner time!”

“Shirou? I’d like to stay home for Christmas this year,” Saber said.

“That’s fine with me,” Shirou said. “I’ll definitely stay with you, then.”

“There is always next year,” said Sakura.

“Yes, we have the time,” Rider said happily.

After that, the next day was uneventful. Early Christmas day, Lancer stopped by with a gift of some fish. So, that was made into lunch. In the mid afternoon, Kuzuki-sensei delivered some dresses for Saber, complements of Caster. Stella also dropped by with some (incredibly fancy) gifts from Illya.

Other than the visitors, Shirou and Saber spent a peaceful day at home. Just before dinner time, it started to snow.

Shirou looked out into the courtyard and spotted Saber standing in the snow, arms outstretched. He went out to join her.

Noticing him, Saber said, “It didn’t snow even once during the war, did it?”

“Yeah, this weather is a little strange,” Shirou replied.

“It is still a wonderful sight,” Saber said, turning toward the sky.

Shirou came up next to her. She put her arm around his waist and smiled at him. They looked up at the falling snow together for a time, until the chaos of Taiga returning home with the fried chicken drew them back into the house.