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Archer sneered down at them, as though he still stood at the top of those stairs. Impressive, Tsuda would admit. Even when on the backfoot, his golden armor rent and stained crimson with his own blood, he still retained his dignity as king. Flames burned behind those crimson eyes, so obviously inhuman, but he hadn’t yet panicked, acknowledged that his defeat was at hand.
His vault opened wider, more and more of those golden holes appearing, hanging in the sky behind him, stars against the smoke filled backdrop.
From each of those holes, the heads of weapons peaked out for only the briefest of moments, then they fired. The greatest works of men long since lost to time, the life's work of many, shot forward like some common arrow and all for naught. The Emiya boy was still firing, and for every masterwork loosed, two lesser copies met it, and the sky rained iron shards.
Tsuda kept moving, and even though he couldn’t spare a look at her – even a moment’s distraction would mean his death – he knew Arturia was there. Her eyes would be burning, fitting for a dragon such as she, and she would take every step with the utmost steel to her spine. He could do no less.
He was slower than her over long distances, so by the time he arrived the golden king had brought another blade up to parry her descending stroke, left his body open for Tsuda’s stroke to bite into his side, where Arturia’s blade had already pierced.
It wasn’t much – his strength wasn’t of the grade to seriously wound an existence such as him – but it took strength out of his base, to where he couldn’t hold against Arturia any longer and had to give ground, stumbling back to put distance, dropping another destroyed sword.
Another golden portal appeared beside him, lower this time, in arm’s reach, and that handle slid forth, and his fingers started to wrap around it, and there was something disbelieving in Archer’s gaze now.
He had deemed them worthy of that blade. The strongest in all of Heaven and Earth, the one that had caused the Emiya’s senses to freeze as a mere mortal mind could never comprehend something akin to that. The one that made his heart pound as though thunder when he first laid eyes on it in the brief moment he revealed it prior because it’s nature was so obvious to anyone with eyes, let alone eyes as sharp as his.
Though his role was small, his heart still warmed with the knowledge that he had helped corner the King of Heroes so thoroughly.
And even though some part of him wished to face it, the golden king could never be allowed to use that terrible blade.
The ground here was wonderfully flat, it was a simple matter to slip into that wide stance, the only one he ever took as the king started to speak. Tsuda cut him off.
“
Hiken: Tsubame Gaeshi.”
His blade flashed, becoming three lines suitable enough to silence a bird or a king.
Even with his armor so damaged, it still took the blows wonderfully. But that didn’t matter because he was pushed back another step, his hand falling and he conceded space again. Space that was invaded by Arturia, her blade unsheathed and raised, blazing with light.
“EX-CALIBUR.”
The world flashed gold, and Tsuda was warm. Like the night they stole out to the fields together, his head on her lap as they watched the fireflies dance. She had leaned over him, her hair undone and falling around her face to tickle his own, and like the dragon she was, she had bit him lightly on the nose for some offhand comment, before whispering that she loved him.
When he could see again, they were back on the temple steps, and she was in front of him. Her eyes shined so brightly, and she offered him a small smile as beautiful and priceless as any of the gems the king had displayed
“ Tsuda ,” His name fell from her lips breathless, a gift almost, from the one who had added substance and weight and realness to the fleeting existence of a phantom. “ We won .”
She sounded so light, and there were teeth to her smile now, and she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He decided then and there that if he couldn’t make this moment span forever, he would at the very least give her reason to smile like that every day they had together.
It took him a moment to remember to breathe, and the lapse pinked his cheeks, but he still mirrored her expression. He nodded, very slight. “We did.”
She laughed, short and sweet music to his ears. Her hand reached up, tangled with the collar of his haori and forced him to stoop down, so that she could kiss him.
Both he responded to with the utmost enthusiasm.
It perhaps wasn’t strictly proper to do so in the company of others, out in the open like this, when they were king and some kind of vassal.
But they weren't that anymore. All they were then and there was Tsuda and Arturia.
And that was more than enough for both of them, he knew.