Sakura's expression reddened immediately, turning as bright as her namesake before mumbling. "Erg… I didn't think the news would reach other classes so quickly…"
"Well of course I'd hear of it! It was my classmate he hit!" the girl was bright as a cherry but he continued. "It was even my homeroom teacher that had me put away our class's papers because she had to serve him detention! Wait… why did he hit Yamamura anyway?"
The thought had him pausing. Though he wasn't one to hang around with any of the established cliques, he wasn't so disconnected as to be the class reject. More the floating brownie, everyone's helping hand, than anything. Still, Yamamura was one of those that he tried not to associate with as he hung out more with the rowdier crowd. Helping them with homework or group projects always left a sour taste in Shirou's mouth when they opted to laze about more than others. Speaking of which, he'd heard unsavoury rumours about the guy and his posse but never actually believed them out of genuine good faith in the guy.
"Don't tell me the rumours are true then? That he was hit because he was picking on a girl from one of the lower years—?"
"Erg…" Sakura fell like a sack of tomatoes on the ground. Or rather, she squatted down, hands wrapped around her head, as she let out a muffled whine. Or was it a desperate cry for help? "Not this again…"
"Oy! What's wrong with you?" Shirou was quick to level himself with her. Knee on the cold concrete, he grasped her shoulders to ask. "Was it something I said? Hey!"
"… confessed to me."
"Huh?" Shirou listened intently, but she kept quiet while awkwardly hiding her blushing face.
"Yamamura, your classmate… he—He confessed to me." She replied flatly. It wasn't said in shame or awkward silence. She just stated it like an uninteresting fact. "It happened yesterday. I rejected him, but then he got mad and… well, hit me."
Scratching her cheek, Shirou's eyes caught sight of the bandages again. Putting two and two together in a heartbeat, his teeth grit at the thought of his classmate using violence on another person. But he didn't act enraged. That her brother was in trouble with a teacher and she was here waiting for him, it meant only one thing.
"Your brother fought him back this morning then?" She nodded, cheeks growing redder. "You told him what happened and he got mad for your sake?"
"It's so embarrassing!" she whined like it was the cringiest thing to happen. "I didn't really care about the guy but, Shinji's… let's just say he's not the type to take things lying down."
"Hmm," Shirou nodded quietly. Seeing her not tearing up from fear or pain, but rather mortification for her sibling's selflessness, it looked less like a tragedy and more a comedy. Any worries he may have had broiling up earlier quickly died down at her nonchalance. "Sounds like a good brother to me."
"Don't take his side too! It's just… embarrassing!"
"What's so embarrassing about what he did?" Shirou shrugged, not getting the point. "He defended you after what that jerk did. Honestly, he could've gone about it in a better way, but even doing things this way tells me he's a good guy, don't you?"
"A good guy? Hmph!" Sakura apparently didn't think so. "That jerk of a brother of mine… he's not doing himself any favours. Picking a fight like this, after Uncle told him to behave… It's not helping anyone."
The girl sounded incensed, at her wits end. Or perhaps she was just expressing it like she was but thought well of her sibling regardless. She certainly didn't look that mad for someone who'd been defended. Madder that her helper wasn't helping himself by getting into trouble for her sake. It was complicated, but the boy who found himself in her company didn't really think so.
Shirou held quiet for a moment before answering. "Hm. Well, you did help me. Mind if I keep you company as thanks?"
"Eh? But… Huh?"
"What? I asked if I could keep you company." Sakura looked to have lost the wind in her sails when the tirade turned listless and confused. "If it's no trouble, I mean. You look like you don't want to be alone at the moment. Am I wrong?"
"But… Erg… Didn't I trouble you by making you catch me? Why—?"
"Well, it's partly my fault for even falling to begin with. So don't I get a say in that?" the boy shrugged as he leaned against the gate right next to her, not even waiting for her answer. "Besides, your brother did me a favour and punched Yamamura before I could get to him. You can say I'm doing him a favour and we can call it even, yeah?"
"… … You're weird."
"How so?"
"Why would you treat something like Shinji punching your classmate as a favour?"
"Because… I don't like that sort of thing." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're brother… I guess I wanna thank him for setting things straight. It should be natural to help others in need. Hurting people, especially those weaker than yourself, that's just dumb."
"Are you calling me weak?!" She took offence to that. Her pout was back to being offended rather than teasing.
"No, I—," he wondered how he was going to go about explaining it.
Telling Kiritsugu was one thing, but he trusted the man to get him implicitly. For others… it was less embarrassment and more how confused they looked when he elaborated further. Letting out a cloud of steaming breath, he decided to just wing it.
"I just can't leave it alone, those kinds of things." She listened, going so far as to lean against the wall right next to him. "So I can sort of understand and support your brother. Sure, it may get him into trouble, but at least he did it for your sake. He's… well, I haven't met him myself, but I think he's someone I can get along with."
"It's always the same with you boys, isn't it?" she scoffed but he noted an odd smile in the far corner of her face. "What? You idolize those superheroes like the ones in cartoons too? Gonna go on about how cool heroes are and all that?"
"If I can protect someone like he protected you, then I don't mind being laughed at for it!" If that was what it took to be a hero for someone else… if that's the price he had to pay to save someone, then it was cheap. Hell, he'd give up pride in a heartbeat if it meant doing something like his father had. Kiritsugu may not approve of it, he may even try dissuading Shirou for going so far, but in the end, wasn't it his choice to do what he would for his life? "If I can save someone I care about, then I would do anything, just like he did…"
His father was a hero. He saved Shirou because he wanted to. Was it wrong to do what you could to save another? Of course not! Shirou didn't see anything wrong with wanting the same, wanting to do the same for another.
It was in that determined silence of his that he noticed Sakura had grown quiet too. Glancing at her, he saw the girl look away. For a moment, he saw her crying again. But then through it a trick of the light. It was sunset after all. And being blinded by the sun's glare could've caused him to see it wrong.
He was certain he mistook the tears when she giggled then added. "Hmph, big words for someone who looked about to give up after he kept slipping on the ice."
The tease was uncalled for, but he let it go. Childish jabs led to nowhere. He certainly learned from being led on by his adoptive older sister. Not that Taiga could remain smug for long when he held the high ground in the kitchen. That being said,
"Doesn't matter how many times I slip, I won't give up so easily. Not until I do what I can."
"And what is it you're doing now?" she leaned forward, keenly looking up at his face with a determined stare.
"Like I said, keeping you company." He shrugged, using his pulled-up collar to hide the blush. "I mean, I have to wait with you to meet your brother, don't I? Otherwise I can't thank him for teaching Yamamura a lesson for me."
"You could do that tomorrow, though."
"And leave you here to wait in the cold alone?"
Her eyes widened a bit before she leaned back into the gate. "It's not like I'm lonely for a company or anything."
"Yeah, but I don't care. You looked lonely and I want to thank your brother. Waiting here is just killing two birds with one stone."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… You're weird. You know that?" she said it without looking at him. He may have certainly been an oddity as she refused to look him in the eye when he tried to meet her gaze.
"… Yeah, well. Then I'm the weirdest hero wannabe around. Still won't get me to leave you alone though."
"… Won't your parents worry?"
"Pops trusts me. More so than any adult has a right to anyway." He chuckled at the inside joke. But then again, with him as dinner duty, head of housecleaning, even chief shopper for the Emiya home's needs, it was the truth that he was a bit more independent than others his age. "What about you though? Won't your parents say anything?"
"My parents, huh… … they're dead." That wasn't the bombshell Shirou was expecting. Her nonchalant shrug of the matter spoke of something heavy that she didn't wish to elaborate further, but it didn't mean she ended the conversation there. "Uncle took me in but he's always busy with work. His son, or my adoptive brother Shinji and I go home together. Though, I try to steer him away from trouble. But often times he gets into them regardless for my sake." A cheeky tongue out and a wink his way told him it was something she'd grown used to. "Annoying how wannabe heroes are, isn't it?"
"Sounds to me like he just wants to do right by you."
"Or annoy me to death with how much trouble it brings to our home. None of Uncle Byakuya's hairs can get any whiter."
"I stand by what I said."
"… Weirdo…" she repeated the word, but this time she kept the smile. It was soft and charming enough to distract him, but it also felt… off. Like she was reminiscing about something as she said it. "Heh. Maybe you're right. You and Shinji could get along. You're both weird for wanting to throw yourselves headlong into trouble after all!"
"A-aren't you the same?" he defended. "Despite the dumb thing he did hitting a girl, I doubt Yamamura was the cause for those bandages of yours."
"These," her hand flew to her neck as though to stop him from staring. But, after a momentary pause, she shook her head. "These are just cause I was sick before. Nothing too bad, just can't go out and stress myself too much. Although, getting slapped a bit sorta threw my brother into a fit when he found out."
Then that explained a bit of the overreaction. If she was sickly, he could well understand why someone would go so far as to get in trouble in defending her. His sister was in danger, so Shinji just lost his cool.
"What sucks though is that I can't enjoy playing out in the snow this year!" She hugged her knees whilst leaning back to the gate's bars. "No doubt my brother's getting grounded. And with Uncle being busy all month, no one can keep an eye on me even if I wanted to play in the snow. Hmm… I was hoping to go sledging with Shinji again. Or maybe he'd rather do snowball fights, but that's fun sometimes too…" She stared up longingly into the sky. Her breath steamed, clouding the air up with her disappointment. She started to grumble, "So much for enjoying Christmas this year… …"